106 THi: I.YCHKK AND U'XGAN 



About three-fourths of the spikes of the rlowers are cut off. Next 

 year's fruit comes from the new growth from these pruned branches. 

 Later on the fruit on the bunches is thinned out. The fruit growers 

 take infinite pains with this fruit. The trees are also fertilized at this 

 season, with night soil as a rule. Most trees are fertilised about three 

 times a year. 



The fruit is picked in July and August, and after Li Tsiu 

 (Lap Ts'au j$v, about the Chinese 8th month and 8th day) it 

 is said to be very inferior. Practically all of it is picked before that 

 time though the Shih hsia (Shek hap ^i^) will keep a few days 

 longer. The fruit is removed from the tree by cutting off the 

 clusters with leaves and branches attached. The varieties of the 

 lungan in point of earliness appear on the markets in the following 

 order: Tsao ho (Tso wo^-^fc), Wu yuan (U un ,%U), Hua 

 kioh (Fa hok #&), Shih hsia (Shek hap tflfe), and Shep'i (She p'i 

 fcfc$t) The trees will yield up to four or five hundred pounds of fruit. 

 Many of the fruits are dried, preferably in the sun. As the fruiting 

 season of the lungan is the period of Kwangtung's most severe 

 typhoons and driving rains it is often difficult to get the lungan to the 

 markets or to dry them satisfactorily. This is doubtless a serious 

 check to successful lungan culture. 



Methods of Propagation 



Most of the lungan trees in cultivation in Kvvangtung are 

 either seedlings or have been inarched. Where inarching is practiced 

 the stock is almost invariably Wu yuan (U un J^JSl) which is allowed 

 to reach a height of five or six feet, requiring from three to five 

 years, before it is inarched. The inareh is made high up on the 

 trunk no less than four feet from the ground. This practice is 

 doubtless followed as it is the easiest way to succeed with the inarch 

 when the young plants are taken to the parent trees. But the point 

 of union is at a weak place in the tree and during the high winds 

 there is a tendency for the tree to break at this place unless carefully 

 protected with bamboo bracing until quite old. Even in old trees it 

 is usually possible to determine the point of union between stock and 

 scion, as there seems to be some little difference in the rate of growth 

 of the two and the bark of the Wu yuan (U un &1HP is usually 

 rougher than that of other varieties. 



Grafting the lungan is seldom practiced in Kwangtung but 

 Wu Vino; Kuei C^ISS^ ' refers to the art as practiced on the lungan. 



