Summer is hot, although there is an air conditioner to relieve the heat, but in such a hot summer day, if there is a watermelon as sweet as the first love and cool and delicious in the hand, take a bite, it can be described as a fairy-like feeling!
Now there are many varieties of melons in China, watermelons have early spring red jade watermelon, black beauty watermelon, seedless watermelon, secret treasure watermelon and so on!
Melon varieties include cantaloupe, melon, queen, new miza No. 9, white melon, early queen, Hetao migua, new queen, drunken fairy, yellow drunken fairy, new miza no. 2 and so on!
Of course, there are more varieties of Chinese melons than these, and I will not give examples here.
China is one of the world's four major ancient civilizations, with a long history, and the history of eating melons is also long-standing; it is one of the oldest countries in the world to cultivate melons, with a history of about 3,000 years!
After all, the land area of ancient China is large enough, the climate boundary between the north and the south is also very distinct, and the planting area is wide, so the development of agriculture can be said to be a hundred flowers.
The earliest record of the word melon appears in the Book of Verses: "Eat melon in July, break the pot in August", "Nakata has a house, and the frontier has a melon".
Later, the Book of Rites states: "Whoever cuts a melon for the Son of Heaven, give it to him, and make a towel with ene." For the monarch, Huazhi, Scarf to the Network...".
This means that Tianzi cuts the melon, peels it first, then cuts it into four petals, and then covers it with a silk linen scarf. The monarch, on the other hand, peeled and cut into two petals and covered with burlap.
It can be seen that the hierarchical system at that time, eating a melon must also be divided into three, six, nine and so on, and cannot be transgressed. It can also be seen that at that time, there was also a sense of ceremony for eating melons, and even the matter of eating melons was a popular thing at that time.
It seems that for the matter of eating melons, Chinese has not stopped chasing its footsteps: "The Taiping Guangji records: "Emperor Yang of Hanming, dreaming of eating melons, very beautiful, the emperor asked for the kingdoms." When Dunhuang offered different melon seeds, the name was Qionglong. ”
The emperor could dream of eating melons in his dreams, and the emperor still felt that it was "very beautiful", and even sent emissaries to ask the countries for melons! It can be seen how deeply obsessed eating melons was at that time.
In ancient times, melons were also enshrined as funerary products, carrying the beautiful wish of the living for "the deceased can eat and clothe without worry in the underground world". Therefore, the status of melons at that time was still very high.
At that time, the ancients had already begun to study melons, made the earliest classification of the shape and color of melons, and the description of melons was also very vivid!
In the Book of Wang Zhennong, it is recorded that "there are many melons and cannot be enumerated. It is named after the dragon liver, tiger paw, rabbit head, tanuki head, sheep marrow, and honey tube. The names of Israel are oogua, white dough, yellow rabbit head, white urn, small green, and large spot."
The cultivation level of melon is also recorded in the "Book of Wang Zhennong" that "Dunhuang melon is as big as a hu, all are better than molasses, and their skin is dry and beautiful.".
The "Book of Han and Geographical Records" records that "Dunhuang produced large melons, and the elderly foxes ate them in melons, and the beginning and tail did not come out." ”
According to statistics, the world's total watermelon production averages about 100 million per year, and China accounts for 70% of the world's total output. Although we are a big melon producing country, our export volume is less than 0.1%. Not only that, but we even import watermelons.
In other words, nearly 70% of the watermelons on the earth have entered the stomachs of Chinese. This is why we eat melons very cheaply, because if there are enough, we can win in quantity in the first place.
So why can We in China achieve the freedom to eat melons?
Of course, this point also thanks to our female melon king Wu Mingzhu, all rely on it, we can eat melons at will, rather than the price of fruits like abroad, the price of fruits is as high as the sky-high price, and we can only eat delicious fruits on new year's festivals or special days.
Wu Mingzhu, the "King of Melons", and Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice", both graduated from Southwest University, and Wu Mingzhu studied at the Department of Horticulture of Southwest University with a bachelor's degree in fruits and vegetables.
Wu Mingzhu was born in January 1930 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, into a family of scholars, with favorable conditions and never did rough work. Since then, it may not be possible to think of Wu Mingzhu doing farm work in Guadi.
In fact, it is not the case, Wu Mingzhu in college has a lively and cheerful personality, a cute appearance, and her grades are among the best. During the sophomore year, the school organized labor practice classes, and the first class required them to install a hoe and then hoe the ground.
Although Wu Mingzhu has never done it, but he has done it well, he did not give up lightly, even if there are blisters on his hands, Wu Mingzhu is gritting his teeth to dig the required 30 square meters of ground!
In the subsequent labor practice class, Wu Mingzhu picked up manure, sowed seeds, and watered water, and almost all agricultural labor projects were done over and over again. Wu Mingzhu knows that to learn gardening, you need to experience these things yourself.
In 1953, Wu Mingzhu graduated from university. In the eyes of others, Wu Mingzhu's destination after graduation should be to stay in school to teach or walk the road arranged for her by home; but Wu Mingzhu has already thought about where she wants to go to play her strengths, and the elders and sisters told her that Xinjiang horticulture prospects are good, especially lack of talents, she remembers, so she wants to go very much.
The school also wanted her to stay and teach, but no matter how much the leader persuaded, he also refused again and again, and Wu Mingzhu's firm belief was to go to Xinjiang.
However, Wu Mingzhu was unable to go to Xinjiang as she wished, because the Personnel Bureau assigned her to work in the Southwest Agriculture and Forestry Bureau. After working in the Southwest Agriculture and Forestry Bureau for a year, Wu Mingzhu was transferred to the Central Rural Work Department in Beijing.
The dream has been far away again and again, Wu Mingzhu still has not given up the idea of going to Xinjiang; the thoughts will have echoes, in 1955, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had just been established, and it was in urgent need of talents.
Wu Mingzhu finally saw the lights coming from the end of the road leading to Xinjiang in the distance, and she immediately applied for an upgrade to transfer to Xinjiang.
This time, Wu Mingzhu was finally transferred to Xinjiang as she wished. Before leaving, Wu Mingzhu first returned home to visit her parents. She hadn't been home for several years, and her parents had been very surprised, but when they heard that she was about to leave for Xinjiang again, it was a bout of reluctance.
After arriving in Xinjiang, Wu Mingzhu was still not satisfied. Because she was assigned to Urumqi, in her opinion, this is not enough grassroots, she wants to go to the most grassroots place, that is, Shanshan County.
The following year, she finally successfully applied for transfer to Shanshan County as the deputy director of the agricultural technology station. Few people know about this place in Shanshan County, but there is a very famous Flame Mountain around it.
Therefore, the climate of this place is also very hot, with the maximum temperature reaching 50° in summer. At the same time, the sunshine is very abundant, so under the conditions that the sun and temperature are very suitable, it is simply a melon paradise.
Since then, Wu Mingzhu has begun the research path of melon.
She and her peers spent 3 years in the melon ripening season, traveled to the rural melon fields in Turpan, Shanshan and Toxon counties, collected more than 100 copies of the original materials in the hands of farmers, conducted detailed observations at the test site, sorted out 44 excellent farm varieties of melons, and systematically purified the red heart crisp varieties from them. This red heart is so crisp that even President Nixon loves it.
In 1962, Wu Mingzhu and the entire team visited more than 300 production teams over the years, and collected 44 local varieties and 1 piece of wild melon information, and the entire handwritten material was more than 5 million words.
This information became the first melon archive established in Xinjiang, and with the information in it, many endangered melons were rescued and laid a solid foundation for the development of new melon seeds.
In 1973, in order to speed up breeding, Wu Mingzhu went to Sanya, Hainan to establish a "southern breeding and northern breeding" base. The conditions here are even more difficult than in Xinjiang, but Wu Mingzhu has developed and cultivated many victorious melons here.
Wu Mingzhu went to Hainan in spring and summer, autumn and winter, experimented in the melon field every day, and finally studied and cultivated new varieties of melons such as "smile", "queen", "tulip", "hibiscus" and so on. She successfully broke through the hybrid breeding technology, proposed the original ecological breeding scheme, and even solved the core problem of poor adaptability and disease resistance of melons in Xinjiang.
Not only that, Wu Mingzhu also broke the difficulty of geographical isolation, so that the southeast coastal areas can also grow melons as sweet as Xinjiang. At the same time, it also realizes the myth of the melon world that ripens three times a year, not only allowing the Chinese people to eat melons in the south, but also melons throughout the year.
Success in Xinjiang has made Wu Mingzhu more confident and full of confidence: "I think that more people should eat cantaloupe, and cantaloupe should go out of Xinjiang and go to the whole country!" ”
In 1973, the 42-year-old Wu Mingzhu embarked on his own path of innovation, like Yuan Longping, the father of China's famous hybrid rice, Dai Jingrui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a corn breeding expert, and a professor at the China Agricultural University, and Guo Sanwei, a famous cotton expert in China, who chose to go to Hainan "Nanfan" to carry out the southern breeding of melons.
This means that new challenges are about to begin, and at the same time, some people are beginning to raise voices of doubt, arguing that plant growth should not violate the laws of nature. The result of violating the laws of nature is as the Spring and Autumn Period Qi ming Xiang Yanzi said, "Oranges are oranges in Huainan, and oranges are oranges in Huaibei."
One by one, the initial difficulties of "Nanfan" fell on wu mingzhu's head, and Wu Mingzhu said, "At that time, the nanfan base was located in a troop farm in Yacheng (Sanya). Overgrown wasteland, simple dry buildings, those scientists have traveled thousands of miles to come here, not so much for the southern breeding, but for the cause of scientific research and dedication, Teacher Wu said at that time, since it is dedication, it does not matter how difficult the conditions are. ”
The purpose of Wu Mingzhu is very clear, that is, to use the characteristics of Hainan autumn and winter weather warm and humid, sufficient light to carry out scientific experiments in seed reproduction, germplasm research, new line generation expansion, hybrid seed production, planting identification, etc. She wants to take Hainan as a pilot to improve the breeding speed and efficiency, so that the south can grow out of the northern melon, and realize the dream of melons ripening three or even four times a year.
Wu Mingzhu said: "The key to work is to innovate! To build our country into an innovative country, and in my job to innovate, to push out our original, as well as those that are insufficient, through the latest breeding methods to be improved, and I still have two wishes, the first is to cultivate a low-sugar sour melon suitable for obese and diabetic people. The second wish is to cultivate a "flower strip" melon that is more beautiful in appearance and more appetizing. ”
Finally, with the unremitting efforts of Wu Mingzhu and the team, the ecological differences were used to achieve the southern and northern breeding of cantaloupes, and created a method of rapid breeding throughout the year, which subverted the traditional sense of "orange is orange in Huainan, and orange is orange in Huaibei". It has filled the gap in china's north melon moving south.
Because Wu Mingzhu was too conscientious and conscientious about her work, she inevitably neglected her family. The two children did not see their mother, who should have been closest, for many years, and did not learn to understand until they grew up.
Wu Mingzhu's son Yang Xia was born during the time when Wu Mingzhu was studying in Tuyugou, but considering that he was busy with work and living conditions in Wuhan were better, he agreed. After that, Wu Mingzhu also gave birth to a daughter, who was also brought back to Wuhan by her mother to take care of her.
Because the two children often do not see Wu Mingzhu, they are kissed by their uncles and aunts, calling them "father and mother". For a long time, Yang Xia and her sister also complained about their mother in their hearts.
They felt that for their mothers, melons were closer than they were, and Yang Xia did not change her name to Wu Mingzhu as her mother until she was 21 years old. As they grew older, the siblings slowly understood their mother and her work.
In the 1990s, the melons cultivated by Wu Mingzhu have covered 80% of the main commodity melon areas in Xinjiang, and most of China has planted watermelons cultivated by Wu Mingzhu's team, with high yields and low natural prices, so we can eat melons as we wish.
In 1993, the sweet and sour yellow skin melon cultivated by Wu Mingzhu was successfully planted in California, USA, which was the first time that Chinese melons were successfully planted overseas.
In 1999, Wu Mingzhu was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the only academician to cultivate watermelons and melons.
Wu Mingzhu was associated with melons all his life. According to her - "Melon is my child, innovation is the milk I feed my child". Wu Mingzhu was one of the first female scientists to dedicate herself to the cause of horticulture in China's frontiers. He has been engaged in the genetic breeding research of watermelon and melon for a long time, and has bred new varieties of cantaloupe such as 'Queen', which has made significant contributions to the development of xinjiang's melon cause.
By 2017, Wu Mingzhu, who had squatted in the melon field for most of her life, finally sat down well. At the age of 87, she officially retired from the team and was taken to Chongqing by her son for retirement.
Chinese can eat melons freely, which is inseparable from the decades of research and dedication of Grandma Wu Mingzhu. She was a classmate of Yuan Longping's, and the two influenced China's melon and rice fields, respectively.
In her more than 50 years of research, she has cultivated 28 high-quality melon seeds approved by the state, including the familiar red heart crisp, fragrant pear yellow, small green skin, black eyebrows, fragrant honeydew melon, queen melon, tulip melon, golden phoenix, emerald melon, unicorn melon, and the "trump card" in watermelon - 8424 watermelon. Her words always hung on her lips were: "My life is to make a few melons and dedicate the sweetness of the melons to the people."
To this year, the melon queen Grandma Wu is already 91 years old, I don't know how many young people in our new era know her? When we sit in the air-conditioned room and eat the west and cantaloupe, don't forget that it is Academician Wu Mingzhu who has eaten all the bitterness and acid in the melon, so that we can eat the sweet and juicy melon. Her dedication to hard work and regretlessness is always worth learning.