Chapter 515 - 41: The Magical Soil (Part 2)
In the morning, he made baklava and sent his daughter out on her bike to sell it. Logically speaking, she shouldn’t have returned yet. Zhou Qizhen felt helpless about letting his daughter peddle on the streets. His identity and his terribly poor cotton farming techniques had made the entire Ulucosa community look down on him.
At this time, his daughter coming over to call out could only mean his wife had an accident, or that wretched woman Jiva had come over to lure his son away again.
He had been squatting on the edge of the field for quite a while, and when he heard his daughter’s call, he became anxious. As he stood up abruptly, his head felt dizzy and his vision blacked out for a moment. When his head and unclear vision settled, his daughter Pali Dan had already brought a young man over to the ridge.
"Are you Mr. Zhou? I’m a technical advisor from the town," the sound of shoes crunching sandy soil could be heard. A technical advisor sent from town?
Hmph, just another to come and see his joke. Several times he had gone to seek advice from the wealthy cotton grower Ahmat, the man only tapped his water pipe to knock off the ashes and stuffed tobacco into it, "This is Ulucosa Town. The deities from the Heavenly Mountain bless the people of Ulucosa, but the cotton you grow is only fit to be cheaper than stones."
"Dad, Uncle Zhou is a nice person, he said the baklava you made is delicious," Pali Dan’s cheeks were rosy with joy, having replaced earlier panic.
Uncle Zhou? Another with the same surname. Since living in Ulucosa Town, it had been years since he heard the surname of the Han people.
His guard dropped a bit, Zhou Qizheng felt in his coat pocket and only found an empty packet of cigarettes. The last one had already been smoked at the edge of the field.
Zhou Ziang was also sizing up Zhou Qizheng, seeing a man who wasn’t lazy. Judging by his wife and daughter and the baklava they’d consumed, he seemed to be a hardworking and practical person. A diligent man like that, how could he not grow cotton successfully?
At the foot of the ridge, the three acres of cotton fields provided the best answer.
"This soil quality..." Before coming to Xinjiang, Director Yu Gang personally gave Zhou Ziang a soil quality analysis report about Xinjiang.
Ulucosa belongs to Southern Xinjiang, where the soil mainly consists of sandy soil.
Sandy soil isn’t suitable for most crops. However, for growing cotton, this soil’s physical properties are best; the so-called golden cotton soil is a mix of 60% sand and 40% clay.
"It’s sandy soil, Dr. Yu Gang, the current director of China’s Agricultural Institute, even said that this soil could grow the best cotton." Zhou Qizheng stubbornly believed his few acres of land. Back then, he was responsible for accompanying Director Yu Gang throughout much of Xinjiang, and the only cotton soils ever praised by Director Yu were the very few acres they were standing on.
"I’m not saying Director Yu was wrong. With his professional knowledge, his judgements shouldn’t be mistaken. Soil conditions can change over time. If Director Yu saw the current state of this soil, he would agree with me that this land is no longer suitable for cotton cultivation." Zhou Ziang could see that this simple man had clung to Yu Gang’s words as a last lifeline, placing all hopes on these few acres of sandy soil. His own judgement might just shatter the last faith Zhou Qizheng had in growing cotton, but he still had to tell the truth.
A man, a father, steadfast in his belief to persist in something, wasn’t wrong. But if he couldn’t take care of his wife and children’s livelihood, then he was undoubtedly negligent.
"Impossible, how could Director Yu say that, he is a responsible man in both words and deeds. When I discussed with him about staying in Xinjiang to grow cotton, he also encouraged me to stay." Zhou Qizheng couldn’t believe what Zhou Ziang said, swaying like a forlorn falling leaf.
"Uncle, my dad fertilizes every winter and waters every day. He cherishes the cotton field more than anyone in town, why can’t cotton be grown here?" Little girl Pali Dan spoke out in injustice for her father.
Although Pali Dan wasn’t old, she had helped pick cotton bolls in others’ fields and watched those growers chop the cotton trees carelessly after harvesting, piling them on the side.
That was nothing like her father, who almost cherished every cotton tree in the field as his own child.
"Pali Dan, have you ever tried carrying water with a bamboo basket?" Zhou Ziang didn’t want to deflect the innocent girl’s curiosity with the harsh technical terms of botany; life’s hardships shouldn’t extinguish a child’s thirst for knowledge.
"Is it the basket used for eggs? How can it be used to carry water, the water would leak out," Pali Dan didn’t understand, why would this seemingly smart uncle ask such a silly question, even Abudan knew you couldn’t carry water with a bamboo basket.
"This few acres of land your family has is like a bamboo basket, and the fertilizers your father uses are like water," Zhou Ziang caressed Pali Dan’s little head and then asked Zhou Qizheng, "Have you used a lot of phosphorus, potassium, and zinc fertilizers in the field?"
"Yes, cotton loves potassium fertilizers. I spend a lot every year, whether chemical fertilizers or bio-fertilizers that we ferment at home," Zhou Qizheng indeed put a lot of effort into this cotton field.
"Yet now, there’s not a speck of potassium in the soil, and the content of the other phosphorus and zinc fertilizers is also very low," Zhou Ziang pinched a fistful of sandy soil and rubbed it within his fingers, "That said, you should now understand."
Zhou Qizheng froze on the spot.
"Not just these few acres, but also the hillside nearby, all the soil is lacking fertilizers. That’s why I said this place isn’t suitable for cotton, it’s not suitable for any other crop either. If you don’t believe it, you can take some soil samples and send them to the assay office in Urumqi for a check." Zhou Ziang said regretfully. Pali Dan looked at her father and whispered, "It’s not like that."
Zhou Qizheng waved his hand and came over to take his daughter’s hand, walking heavily over the ridges. In the cotton field, the green cotton bolls were dull and lustreless.
**
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