Nowadays, I think that the meaning of the field and the land are basically inseparable. On the one hand, this is because of the continuous improvement and change of water conservancy facilities, and on the other hand, it is also to improve the multiple cropping index of grain crops and increase the yield and economic efficiency of crops per unit area of land, which is of course a good thing.
In this way, there is basically no water in the field, except for the water when the seedlings are planted, but after the rice is harvested. After ploughing and drying, wheat is planted again, and it is not until the wheat is harvested in May of the following year, and then it is irrigated and planted with water, and this period can be called a field.
Therefore, although the nominal field is often mentioned nowadays, in essence it is not much different from dry land.
And in the 60s and 80s of the last century, when I knew a little bit about things, the field and the land were two different things. At that time, the land was generally a dry land on a slope that could not store water. The field that people often talk about refers to the place that can store water in winter, and the place commonly known as the winter paddy field can be called a field.
The fields called winter paddy fields are basically watered throughout the year, except for droughts. When spring comes, the peasants will take the buffalo and resist the plough to plough the fields, which is called "plowing the winter paddy fields" in the jargon of the farmers' special technology.
Because the first time to plow the paddy fields for the first time every year is in early spring and February, the water in the fields is still cold. Those who do the technical work of ploughing the fields must wear thick cotton jackets on the upper body and only a thin pair of trousers on the lower body. That's because if the pants are thick, it won't be convenient to work in the fields if they can't be rolled up.
In order to prevent the cold from invading the whole body, people who plow the winter paddy fields will use a straw rope to tie their cotton jackets tightly around the waist and not leak the slightest gap. Despite this, when the ploughman finishes his farm work and goes up to the ridge and stands on the ridge, he will still freeze the upper teeth and constantly collide with the lower teeth.
If you encounter that winter paddy field is a "rotten bag field" like a swamp, the person who plows the field will not wear the lower body, but only tie a cloth belt to cover his privacy on the lower body, and dress like a Japanese sumo wrestler, and fall into the waist-high winter paddy field with the cow and crawl slowly. A one-acre rotten winter paddy field often takes a day of hard work to plow.
Seeing the man and the cow struggling in the rotten winter paddy field, plus the day of counting nine has just passed, and the cold is still stagnant in the days and has not completely left, although it is not the hardship of sweat dropping into the soil, but it will naturally make every conscientious witness think of the meal on the plate, the poem of hard work.
Of course, although the winter paddy fields do not have and cannot grow wheat, the smart villagers will not let the winter paddy fields "idle" and not play a role.
After the millet is harvested in autumn every year, in order to prevent water leakage in the field, the water cannot be stored in the winter, which affects the rice cultivation of the following year. Farmers will smear the ridges of the winter paddy fields with a layer of thin mud, and then raise some fish in the fields as soon as they have filled up the water. When it is time to plant seedlings, catch fish and sell them, so that they can still be rewarded.
And in those winter paddy fields where there are no fish farming, there will also be some small fish that survive. It is precisely because there are small fish in the winter paddy field that it adds a beautiful scenery to the winter paddy field.
In the middle of winter and early spring in February, the people in the village who like to catch fish will hold a bamboo pole about three to four meters long in the shape of "F" in one hand, and hold a "cover" made of bamboo strips with an upper mouth of only more than 10 centimeters and a diameter of about 1.5 meters at the bottom.
And the job of "paddling" to catch fish seems simple, but it is actually a technical job. Because even if the "F" shaped bamboo pole gently scratches the water, it is not necessary to make the bamboo stick scratch the soil, and it is necessary to observe the movement of the "F" shaped bamboo pole in the water after the stroke without blinking. At the same time, once you see movement, it takes less than a minute and ten minutes to pounce very quickly, raise the "cover" in your hand, and "cover" the fish that was panicked when the bamboo pole was paddled in the water, and then stretch your arm through the "cover" mouth to catch the "covered" fish.
It is very difficult for a fool like me to catch the fish in a basin of water, and it is impossible to catch the fish in a panic and want to escape in a range of about one and a half meters in diameter and one to two feet deep, even though it is "covered"!
However, I often see experienced fish catchers, once they have "covered" the fish, they will reach into the "cover" and catch the live fish in less than a minute, and then in the blink of an eye they will put the fish in the "fish basket" that is slung across their buttocks...
Winter paddy field, a memory that is fading away! (The ends of the world are next to each other).