THE LVCHRt: AND LUNG AN 



was necessary to carry the fruits from south to north. Ts'ai Hsiang 

 (HH-) 1 says, "Foochow (j@ftP usually sends its tribute of lychee in 

 two forms: Hung yen (&|gj and Mi chien tlgjfjlj, or candied lychee. 

 During the Ch'ing Li (H) year of Jen Tsung (1041 A.D.), 

 Emperor of the Sung Dynasty, the T'ai Kuan (JklT) or Official in 

 Charge of the Collection of Tribute, inquired concerning the form 

 in which the yearly tribute was sent. T-he Cjjih Chou Shih (^fl>H^), 

 or Prefect of Foochow OiiMM), told him that the distance was very 

 long and therefore they were not able to send them. The T'ai 

 Kuan (Jklf) then ordered the number of Hung yen (|n.!J) lychee to 

 be diminished, and the amount of plain dried fruit to be increased 



Transportation 



Although the lychee is perishable the fresh fruit can be market- 

 ed to advantage at great distances from the orchards, as is testified by 

 the fact that in northern China and Japan it is readily found in season 

 on the markets of important cities; and transportation facilities are 

 still very slow in China. Mr. Higgins 2 in his bulletin gives some in- 

 teresting experiments with regard to this question and believes 

 "there is no doubt that refrigeration will prove a very satisfactory 

 method for placing upon American markets the litchi crop grown in 

 Florida, California, Hawaii, Porto Rico, or Cuba." 



Wholesale Prices of Ike Fresh Fruit 



That the local Canton prices for lychee and lungan are not 

 low is indicated by the following table of prices received by a grower ? 

 who marketed his fruit wholesale: 



1 TS'AI HSIANG (HH), Li Chih P'u (^=f) in Ku Chin Ti Shu 

 Chi Cheng ("g^B^INc), P* Wu Hui Pien (tf^HH), Ts ' ao Muh Tien 

 section 273 (f&Htf-fc+H^), Li Chih Pu 1 (%&&-), page 4 



2 Higgins, J. E., The Litchi in Hawaii, Hawaii Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Bulletin No. 44, page 13. 



J Acknowledgement is due Mr. Mo Hui T'ang (Mok Fai T'ong 

 of Pel Shan (Pak Shan 4blll) f r access to his account books whereby it was 

 possible to obtain the following figures. 



