Speaking of Quzhou's characteristic agricultural products, how can not get around citrus, in the local traditional local specialties are known as red tigers. Literati of all generations have not spared no effort in writing and ink, so that Quzhou citrus is famous in history.
Northern Wei Li Daoyuan wrote in the "Notes on the Water Classics": "The water is also east, the Water Of Dingyang Creek is injected, the water is chengxin'an County's Su Yao Bu Dingyang County, the Jia'an Edge Creek, the Xisheng Branch Bamboo, and the Fangyu, Mulian, mixed with frost chrysanthemums and golden oranges." In the sixth year of Song Chunxi (1179), Yang Wanli passed through Quzhou and was given the "Quzhou Near-City Orchard": When he did not reach Quzhou for five miles, the fruit forest looked at Jiangmei. Yellow citrus green orange dark tomato, tree without wind and branches. Xu Xiake wrote in his travelogue: "The orange and green fengdan on both sides of the strait is overwhelming. Ten more miles, turn north. Another five miles, for Huangbu Street (present-day Hangbu Town, Editor's Note). Tachibana Slave Thousand Trees, Basket Full House, City Orange Boat, Scales Under the River. In addition, the Ming Dynasty Fang Zhi scholar He Qiaoyuan, the physician Lu Zhiyi, and the Qing Dynasty poet Zhu Yizun all left poems describing Quzhou citrus.
The description of Zheng Yongxi's "Quxian Chronicle" of the Republic of China is more specific: there are orange trees in the riverside area around xixiang hangbu, which used to produce hundreds of thousands of cartons per year, and has been paid tribute since the Ming Dynasty, and was deposed in the late Qing Dynasty.
According to the statistics of the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934), the annual output of oranges in Changshan County in Quchang Orange District has reached an astonishing amount of 12390 tons!
A few days ago, this reporter found an eight-page white paper in the Qingjian She, an antique bookstore in the downtown area, entitled "Citrus in Quxian County, Zhejiang Province," and the distribution unit was the College of Agriculture of national central university. Although the book is not thick, the author introduces Quzhou citrus from the perspective of modern agricultural science, supplemented by Chinese and English annotations, photos, and anatomical drawings, which is interesting.
Founded in 1928, National Central University was the largest institution of higher learning in China during the Republic of China period with the most complete academic settings. The School of Agriculture is one of the most important birthplaces of modern agricultural disciplines in China. In the adjustment of colleges and universities after the founding of New China, the former National Central University has developed more than ten famous universities, including today's Southeast University, Nanjing University, Hohai University, Jiangsu University, The Fourth Military Medical University, Nanjing Agricultural University, East China University of Political Science and Law, northwestern Polytechnical University and so on. The author of this book, Zeng Mianzhi, is Professor Zeng Mianzhi (Zi Mian Zhi), who is known as the founder of Chinese citrus science.
After graduating from the Department of Horticulture of Southeast University, the predecessor of National Central University, Zeng Mian served as an assistant professor of horticulture at Chuo University in 1927 and studied in France in 1928. After returning from studying in 1934, he successively served as a professor at Central University, Yunnan University, Nanjing University, and Shandong University. Since 1960, he has been the director and honorary director of the Citrus Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
In the preface to the opening chapter of this book, Zeng Mian said that quxian used to have traffic obstructions, but now the Zhejiang-Gansu railway runs through the county border, has many stations, and travels are called convenient, and the current Xianming local governor's office inspector Lu Zhongxiu and county magistrate Wang Chaofan Yunyun. Wang Chaofan served as the county magistrate of Quxian County from 1933 to 1937, and it can be judged from this that although the time of publication of this book is not specified, it is certainly between 1934 and 1937.
In addition to objectively stating the unfavorable factors such as quzhou as the northern latitude of the citrus production area, the author also analyzes in detail the planting conditions such as quzhou's topography and soil, and points out that quzhou orange farmers are not good at maintaining fruit trees, and their fertilization is also quite casual. The common citrus varieties found in Qu are carefully presented.
In the first district of Quxian County, although the cultivation of citrus is not very prosperous, but the varieties have been quite a lot of quality, large rate of nuclear and multi-flavored acid, can not be stored for a long time, in the future local species must be eliminated, foreign species have a great need to try to plant. The main species are hereby recorded as follows: 1. Vermilion orange, the most cultivated, varieties of big red, two red, seven money red three kinds; 2. red orange, cultivation second, the quality of early Fu orange and late Fu orange two kinds; 3. stinky orange, not much cultivation, actually for ornamental only; 4. grapefruit, there are many varieties, farmers can not distinguish it, generally known as fragrant
The author collected these common citrus varieties in Quxian County's Xixiang Hangbu and Yancun area, which produce the most oranges, and the highest taste evaluation is the Seven Money Red collected near the Hangbu Bus Station, and believes that the citrus ripe in mid-to-late October is of medium and upper quality, its peel is coarse and crisp, not tightly wrapped and fleshy, peeled off very easy to be sweet and moderate, and the taste is very delicious.
In addition to citrus, the author also wrote specifically about throwing . The book reads: "Thrown in Quxian Is not valuable, there are pieces for sale in the Area of Hangjia Lake Su, the fruit is fully ripe, that is, it is harvested, with a kind of wooden riveting, planed into sheets, put into water to boil, take out and then soak it in cold water, dissolve the bitter taste, and then dry it. This is the red and green silk used in the manufacture of cakes.
As a well-informed citrus expert who has returned from overseas study, Zeng Mian's wording in this book is euphemistic, implying that he was not too optimistic about the competitiveness of the Quzhou citrus market at that time, only to say that some sweet oranges have been successfully planted in Quzhou, and in the future, it will be seen how it changes.
This white paper from more than 80 years ago not only left us with detailed and precious local historical materials, but also set an example for future generations with scientific rigor and a down-to-earth and serious attitude.
Source: Quzhou News Network