130 SlNO-lRANICA 



of grape. According to the Hui k'ian li S ^ ("Records of Turkis- 

 tan"), written in 1772 by the two Manchu officers Fusamb6 and Surde, 

 "there are purple, white, blue, and black varieties; further, round and 

 long, large and small, sour and sweet ones. There is a green and seed- 

 less variety, comparable to a soy-bean, but somewhat larger, and of 

 very sweet and agreeable flavor [then the so-so is mentioned]. Another 

 kind is black and more than an inch long; another is white and large. 

 All varieties ripen in the seventh or eighth month, when they are 

 dried and can be transported to distant places." According to the 

 Wu tsa tsu, previously quoted, Turkistan has a seedless variety of 

 grape, called tu yen 31 US p'u-t'ao ("hare-eye grape"). 



A. v. LE Cog 1 mentions under the name sozuq saim a cylindrical, 

 whitish-yellow grape, the best from Toyoq and Bulayiq, red ones of 

 the same shape from Manas and ShichO. Sir AUREL STEIN* says that 

 throughout Chinese Turkistan the vines are trained along low fences, 

 ranged in parallel rows, and that the dried grapes and currants of 

 Ujat find their way as far as the markets of Aksu, Kashgar, and Turfan. 



Every one who has resided in Peking knows that it is possible to 

 obtain there during the summer seemingly fresh grapes, preserved from 

 the crop of the previous autumn, and that the Chinese have a method of 

 preserving them. The late F. H. KiNG, 3 whose studies of the agriculture 

 of China belong to the very best we have, observed regarding this 

 point, "These old people have acquired the skill and practice of storing 

 and preserving such perishable fruits as pears and grapes so as to 

 enable them to keep them on the market almost continuously. Pears 

 were very common in the latter part of June, and Consul-General 

 Williams informed me that grapes are regularly carried into July. In 

 talking with my interpreter as to the methods employed, I could only 

 learn that the growers depend simply upon dry earth cellars which can 

 be maintained at a very uniform temperature, the separate fruits being 

 wrapped in paper. No foreigner with whom we talked knew their 

 methods." This method is described in the TV* min yao Jfw, an ancient 

 work on husbandry, probably from the beginning of the sixth century, 4 

 although teeming with interpolations. A large pit is dug in a room of 

 the farmhouse for storing the grapes, and holes are bored in the walls 

 near the surface of the ground and stuffed with branches. Some of 

 these holes are filled with mud to secure proper support for the room. 



1 Sprichworter und Lieder aus Turfan, p. 92. 



2 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan, p. 228. 



Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 343 (Madison, Wis., 1911). 

 1 See BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. I, p. 77; HIRTH, Toung Pao, 1895, p. 436; 

 PELLIOT, Bulletin de I'Ecolefrancaise, Vol. IX, p. 434. 



