320 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



content is high. Basins may be formed around the trees to 

 hold water. 



Bonavia writes : " As the trees grow, their thalas or water- 

 saucers should be enlarged and on no account should the fallen 

 leaves be removed from them, but allowed to decay there and 

 form a surface laye.r of leaf-mold. . . . Every hot weather 

 thin layers of about two or three inches of any other dried 

 leaves should be spread over the thalas, and allowed to decay 

 there, to be renewed when they crumple up and decay." This 

 corresponds to the mulching generally practiced in western 

 countries. It has been remarked by several writers that the 

 litchi is a shallow-rooted tree, with most of its feeding roots 

 close to the surface. If this really is the case, mulching will 

 probably be an essential practice, and deep tilling of the soil 

 will have to be avoided. 



Rev. Mr. Brewster says : " Fertilization is important. 

 Guano is probably as good as anything. The Chinese use 

 night soil. They dig a shallow trench around the tree at the 

 end of the roots and fill it with liquid manure of some sort. 

 This is done about once in three months." J. E. Higgins, 1 in 

 his bulletin "The Litchi in Hawaii," notes that "Some 

 growers prefer to put the manure on as a top dressing and 

 cover it with a heavy mulch because of the tendency of the 

 litchi to form surface roots." 



The tree requires little pruning. Higgins says : " The custom- 

 ary manner of gathering the fruit, by breaking with it branches 

 10 to 12 inches long, provides in itself a form of pruning which 

 some growers insist is necessary for the continued productivity 

 of the tree." But a thorough study has yet to be made of this 

 subject in the Occident. 



Hand-in-hand with the development of litchi-growing in 

 the American tropics and subtropics will come the development 

 of new cultural methods. The information at present available 

 . 44, Hawaii Agri. Exp. Sta., 1917. 



