在我国的南方地区,有着面积相当大的低产水稻田。在低产田里,有很大一部分是“鴨屎泥”田。这种田有个怪脾气,如果風調雨順,每亩还可以收三、四百斤,如果遇到冬干,問題就来了:第二年春天插秧,秧苗长期不返青,根系漸漸变黑,不长新根,分蘗很少,叶片漸漸发黄,并且出現褐斑。秧苗不死不活,奄奄一息。这种病状一直要延續二、三十天之久(不冬干的田只要六、七天就返青),才漸漸减退。这种現象叫“坐秋”,它常使水稻产量銳减。坐秋严重时,秧苗甚至大量死亡。水稻坐秋一旦发生,不但当年无法补救,而且連續两、三年都得不到好收成,所以当地农民有“一年干冬,三年落空”的說法。 In southern China, there is a large area of ​​low-yielding paddy fields. In the low-yielding fields, a large part of it is the “duck and mud” field. This kind of field has a strange temper, if the weather is moderate, it can also receive three or four hundred pounds per mu. If it comes to winter dry, the problem will come: the second year of spring transplanting, the seedlings will not return to green for a long time, and the roots will gradually turn black and not long. New roots, few tillers, yellow leaves, and brown spots appear. The seedlings are immortal and dying. This condition has continued for a period of two to thirty days (if the winter fields do not return to green for six or seven days), they gradually recede. This phenomenon is called “sitting autumn” and it often causes a sharp drop in rice production. When the fall was severe, the seedlings even died. When rice sat down, it would not only be impossible to remedy the situation in the past, but it would not produce a good harvest for two or three consecutive years. Therefore, the local peasants had the saying “one year of dry winter and three years of fall”.