62 THK LVCHKI-: AM) U'NGAN 



Thinniny, I'r tunny <ni<l Y'nld 



Thinning is seldom practiced on the lychee; more on the 

 lungan. Some pruning is done by the Chinese in early winter, but 

 it is customary to break off many of the twigs and branches at the 

 time of harvesting the fruit and this is recognized as a form of prun- 

 ing. Under favorable conditions the tree is a heavy bearer, yielding 

 on rough estimate as much fruit as apple trees of equal si/.e. Chi 

 Han (f$E^)' in his Features of Plants in the South reports that 

 from one tree as many as one hundred "tan" ^equivalent to about 

 1000-1500 Ibs) can be gathered. 



Picking and Protection 



The fruit adheres very tenaciously to the tree and crude- 

 knives are often used in chopping the clusters of fruit, with twigs 

 attached, from the tree, a custom which as shown has doubtless 

 given the lychee its name. Considerable superstition exists with 

 regard to the picking of the fruit. One belief is that no fruit should 

 be removed before the time of picking; and when once picking has 

 started the tree should be picked clean, as birds and insects will im- 

 mediately attack any fruit which remains. This belief doubtless 

 serves a worthy purpose as the temptation to sample the fruit is great 

 and the grower always has a good reason to prevent it. At Tseng 

 Ch'ing (Tsang Shing if^) we were told that the pickers of the Kua 

 lu (Kwa luk $=!$) were always required to sing songs while picking 

 to guarantee that they were not eating any of the fruit. 



Ts'ai Hsiang f $gm) 2 refers to customs connected with pick- 

 ing the lychee in these words: "When the ripening season comes 

 all fruits should be picked from the tree, then neither insects nor 

 birds will dare to come near. If the fruit is only partially gathered 

 from the tree, it will become infested with bats, bees and grubs, the 

 latter eating into the tree. In order to drjve off these pests the 



1 CHI HAN (f|), Nan fang Ts'ao Muh Chuang (\$Jj.Mk} in A'// 

 Chin Tu Shu Chi Cheng fe^flfMUt). Po Wu Hut hen (ttftglB), Ts'av 

 Muh Tien (J^TJC*-), section 273 (HW-fc-f-Sfc), /-/' Chili Pit 1 (jftStSR ), 

 page 2 (%-m 



2 TS'AI HSIANG (Hjg N ,, Li Chili P'u r$3tfjf) in Ku Chin TH A/"' 

 Chi Cheng (W-HMiUft), PoWuHuiPien (ftftgiB), TiaoMnh Tien 



Action 273 z:&ir'3 /./ chih PH i (3ti!M 5 i>^-<- 4 



