Farming Prose in Memory

In the 1970s, after Tomb-Sweeping Day, rural people ended their leisure after a long winter. In the south of the Yangtze River, there are sporadic figures in the fields, which were built in the fields. Cut the grass in the field with a hoe, and then reinforce the field with a layer of mud. Some ditches should also be cleaned up, and silt and some weeds at the bottom of the ditch should be dug up to make the whole ditch unobstructed, which is beneficial to drainage and irrigation when sowing seedlings in the field.

When Qingming comes, the fields are green. That's wheat and alfalfa. A golden rape flower is swaying in the spring breeze. Wheat is waist-high and alfalfa is knee-high.

Next to the warehouse of the production team, there is usually a bathroom with a big pot in it. In winter, this cauldron can boil hot water for players to take a bath. Although there was a shortage of fuel at that time, people's hygiene was still very important. Every few nights, someone will boil a pot of hot water to bathe the men and women in the team. Of course, in those days, people talked about equality between men and women, but in real life, it was not like that. Regardless of age, only men and women, dozens of people, * * * take a bath in a pot of water, only one person at a time, men first, usually wait until women take a bath, this pot of water is like mud.

At that time, the role of this bath pot was not just as simple as bathing the players. During the Chinese New Year, most families will slaughter a pig for the Chinese New Year, and this pot will serve the slaughter of pigs. Like in the bath, this bathroom is full of people, and killing pigs is a big deal.

After Tomb-Sweeping Day, this toilet came in handy again. Soak the seeds in hot water before entering the field; In the bathroom of 30-40 square meters, hot water is boiled in the pot, and a layer of plastic film is spread on the floor, with a thick pile of grain seeds piled on it. Several middle-aged people poured hot water on the grain pile from time to time. Of course, the temperature of this hot water is controlled, so it should be clever, otherwise the grain seeds will not germinate as scheduled, which we call "incubating grain seeds" locally.

After Tomb-Sweeping Day, the farm is busy. First of all, the alfalfa in the field is going to be harvested, which is the busiest time for every household. Because it is related to the food problem of each pig for half a year, a family usually has to get a few thousand kilograms of alfalfa, pick it home, pile it up, cut it into small pieces with a knife, and then put it in a cement pool. After putting it in, people will step on it and put it in the pool.

After the alfalfa in the local area was harvested and put into the water, the field immediately deepened and the roots of alfalfa were turned under the soil. In a few days, alfalfa will rot, and the soil with the rotten smell of alfalfa has a special smell, floating in the field, adding to the charm of spring ploughing.

While harvesting alfalfa, the seedling field should also start sowing. This is the beginning of a season's farmland income, so paddy fields must be done well and carefully. In particular, sowing is generally operated by middle-aged people with rich sowing. It's hard for young people to be round. Besides, I'm not sure who dares to go up. Paddy fields are ridged, and seeds should be covered with a thin layer of grass plaster after sowing. Then put the bamboo pieces on the ridge to form an arch, which is covered with nylon film. Seasonal climate is sometimes cold in early spring, which is not conducive to the growth of seedlings. Nylon film plays a role in keeping warm.

With the growth of seedlings, transplanting is about to begin, and the main labor force of some families in the team needs to supplement some nutrition. Chickens hatched after the New Year also weigh about a kilo. They are called zi chickens locally. Catch one, kill it, wash it, add sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, salt and braise in soy sauce. Generally speaking, this is a tonic. Some middle-aged people break a raw egg every morning and swallow it with yellow wine during transplantation. Few people ask their boys to dip their children's urine and eggs. It is said that this is a folk prescription and a big supplement.

At that time, the government attached great importance to farming, from grain seeds to farmland irrigation, pesticides for insect control, seedling spacing and so on. , but also specially inspected the production team. I remember that the dense planting of small plants was advocated at that time, and the middle-aged and older people in the team could not adapt, but they could not adapt. But when the harvest is good, I have to admit the benefits of this small plant close planting.

In rural areas, seedling pulling and transplanting are high-tech activities, which are not only fast but also good. If the seedlings are pulled out irregularly, the speed of transplanting seedlings will slow down and the survival rate of transplanted seedlings will be low. This is especially true for transplanting rice. The number of roots per plant is basically the same, too little or too much will affect the grain harvest. At the same time, transplanting should be horizontal and vertical, otherwise, the following field management will be more difficult.

At that time, although insects were often treated, there were still many leeches in the field. When transplanting rice in the field, we often have to reach out and catch the leeches nailed to our feet. When leeches are caught, they will bleed a lot. Slippery seedlings were inserted and ran on the ridge, with leeches nailed to their legs. At this time, it is too late to grasp by hand, so we can only pull out a handful of grass and wipe it with grass!

The whole seedling raising period is about half a month. It's much easier to work at dawn than to spend a lot of time in summer.

After spring sowing, people can relax for a few days, followed by wheat harvesting and rape harvesting and field management of rice seedlings. There are nearly two months from the end of spring sowing to the beginning of double summer. During this period, there was not much farm work and I was not very tired, especially the weather was not very hot. It can be said that it is the most comfortable period for farmers in a year. However, the next double summer is already waiting. At that time, Shuangxia said it was a "double grab".