Farming
We couldn’t change the past, but we surely could try to reflect more on the past to gain more benefits from it and have a better future.
It seems old-fashioned to live in a village and participate in farming in modern life. But I believe that experience will help me in other aspects.
I was born in Meizhou, Guangdong, in 1995. I lived there until I was 9 years old, in 2004. My mother brought me to Guangzhou to live with my father.
I participated in farming work for 3 years, from 2001 to 2004, including sowing, rice harvesting, and drying grain.
One thing to learn is that these kinds of activities are heavily reliant on the atmosphere and weather. If it is going to rain, you have to collect the drying grain quickly to avoid it getting wet.
How many times do we plant and harvest rice? According to Mistral,
In Meizhou, Guangdong, the typical rice cultivation pattern allows for two harvests per year. This is known as double-cropping. The two main seasons for rice cultivation are:
- Early Rice - Sown in the spring and harvested in the summer.
- Late Rice - Sown in the summer and harvested in the fall.
So, in Meizhou, farmers generally plant and harvest rice twice a year. If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!
But actually, I couldn’t be sure about it. What I remember is that in the summer, we would harvest rice. We at least plant and harvest rice once a year.
When sowing, there are insects in the farmland. We threshed grain using a machine. The sun, water, and air help rice grow. Floods and droughts can destroy crops. The distance between rice plants matters; they shouldn’t be too close together.
People use fertilizer, but I’m skeptical about its effectiveness.
It teaches people patience and the principles of nature.
Farming is similar to programming in some ways. The hardware is like the soil, and electricity is like the air and water. Rice growing is like code running.
However, farming differs from programming in some ways. Mainly, rice grows without much human intervention. Similarly, if code is running on a server without much human intervention, and if it was written correctly, the desired result will occur.
Now, people are working on intelligent farming, automated farming, and farming robots.