When cotton sowing season began-or, more precisely, when crop sowing began-the weather turned less pleasant.
Early April had been sunny all along, but once sowing began, the sky was either full of dust or thick with clouds, with strong winds sweeping through.
More people were planting cotton this year. Whether they had grown it before or not, they all knew by now that when laying plastic film during sowing, they had to weigh it down with a few extra shovelfuls of soil to keep the wind from lifting it.
The farmers of the Fourth Team had one good habit: when they did not know how to do something, they would ask someone who did.
Without drip irrigation, growing cotton was not especially delicate work, so asking two or three households was usually enough to pick up the little tricks.
As long as they followed that experience, things generally would not go wrong.
Li Long also returned to the team from time to time to check the cotton's growth. After all, this was the Cooperative's first year growing drip-irrigated cotton on a large scale, and he still felt a little uneasy leaving others to watch over it.
When Li Long returned, the team's cotton growers would usually come to the Cooperative's fields or the Li family's home to ask questions.
They asked about things such as watering cotton, when to thin the seedlings, and which fertilizers to apply to which soil.
Li Long usually answered them truthfully. He was quite happy to do this sort of thing, and his attitude toward people eager to learn was generally very good.
When no one came, he would also talk to the Cooperative's members about managing the fields after sowing.
"You're saying we don't need to thin the cotton this year?" Xu Haijun asked,