60 THE LYCHEE AND LUNGAN 



Soiis, Preparation and Transplanting 



A loam is most desirable for the lychee and the so-called river 

 mud of the Canton delta seems to meet the highest soil requirements. 

 Mr. Humphrey G. Carter, 1 Economic Botanist at Calcutta, India, 

 writes that the Mozufferpore lychee is the best in India and that the 

 soil there is moist, sandy and mixed with a sufficient quantity of rich 

 clay. He considers that old river beds make excellent lychee gar- 

 dens. 



In Kwangtung little soil preparation is made for the tree prior 

 to planting. Where the soil is especially hard, small pits are some- 

 times dug and these are filled with specially prepared soil. The 

 farmers rarely grow their own trees, but procure layered stock from 

 the nurseries. 



The planting is done in March and April at about Ts'ing 

 Ming (^B^), that season in China which is devoted to > the worship 

 of graves. At this time the soil has begun to warm up and sufficient 

 rainfall is assured to give the trees a good start. At the time of 

 transplanting the branches are not trimmed back very severely. The 

 Chinese claim that unless the young tree has sufficient foliage to en- 

 able it to benefit from the morning dews it will get a poor start. 

 Tang Tao Hsieh (ffiMWj), 2 in his treatise gives explicit instructions 

 not to trim off the leaves at the time of transplanting. After planting, 

 the trunk and limbs of the young trees are often wrapped with rice 

 straw to prevent excessive evaporation or sun scald in summer and 

 excessive cold in winter. 



1 Carter, Humphrey G. , in correspondence with Office of Foreign Seed 

 and Plant Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



2 TANG TAO HSIEH (f$il$p, Li Chih P'u d^fff) in Ku Chin Tu 

 Shu Chi Cheng (-^^^J&), Po WuHui ft>(tS^l$l), Ts'ao Muh Tien 



section 274 (3$HW-trhTO), Li Chih Pu 2 ^SRH), page 6 



