PHOTOS AND FEATURES ON CHINESE INDUSTRY [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04546A003100010002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 12, 2003
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORT

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THE OIL MELON - A VALUABLE NEW
OIL BEARING CROP
The cultivation of a wild oil bearing plant of a very high
economic value in China's Yunnan has succeeded. The plant is called
the "oil melon," and those succeeded in cultivating it are the scien-
tists of the Hsi-shuang-pan-na Tropical Botanical Garden of the Aca-
demia Sinica. As an oil bearing plant, the oil melon is considered
to be superior to the oil coconut and such like. If the crop is ex-
tensively cultivated in China from now on, it will not be exaggerat-
ing to say that it will greatly enrich China's economic strength,
furnish the world with a new industrial crop unknown heretofore, and
enhance the well-being of mankind.
Let us see what the oil melon is and how it has been success-
fully cultivated.
The Oil Melon
A wild creeper plant found in tropical forests, the oil melon
grows in the low and humid places in the tropical forests of South
China. Its natural area of distribution is between latitude 240 N
and the equator. In China, it is found in the tropical and sub-tro-
pical areas of Hsi-shuang-pan-na, Ho-k' ou near the Vietnam border,
and Mang-shih near the Burma border in Yunnan, and from damp valleys
tens of m above sea level to cool mountains 2,000 m above sea level
in parts of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, etc.
According to classificatory botany, the oil melon belongs to
the same family as the pumpkin and the water melon. A dioecian
perennial, once planted, it will live and produce for decades.
Blooming twice a year, the female bears fruit twice while the male
flowers only without bearing fruit" The first bloom is between
March and April, and the fruit matures between July and August. The
second bloom is between September and October, and the fruit matures
between January and February the following year. The wild oil melon
produces 10 to 20 fruits a year.
Looking somewhat like a small water melon, the oil melon has
six seeds about the size of duck eggs. When the skin of the seed is
peeled, 2 to 3 fat and heavy kernels are found therein. The kernel
is about the size of half of a hardboiled chicken egg. Its oil con-
tent is high, about 70% to 80%, whichhl to 4 times that of the soy-
bean, 1.5 to 2 times that of the rapeseed, and 1.5 to 3 times that
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of the peanut. The oil extracted from-the kernel is transparent and
fragrant. When congealed, it resembles lard, and tastes almost the
same. Hence, it is also called the "pork lard melon."
After the oil is extracted, the dregs contain over 70%.protein,
about twice that of the soybean, and serve as a tasty and nourishing
food. It is not inferior to beef or fish in quality.
Cultivation Experimenting
By planting and acclimatizin,;, the scientists of the Hsi-
shuang-pan-na Tropical Botanical Garden of the Academis Sinicasuc-
ceeded in cultivating the oil melon. The agricultural and forestry
production units have already begun to popularize it, and are in
process of productive experimenting and popularization.
The person in charge of the study of the oil melon at the bo-
tanical garden is botanist Tslai Hsi-t'ao (5591 1585 7118), who dis-
covered the wild oil melon as early as in 1933 at the present P'ing-
pien Miao autonomous hsien (at the upper Sonkoi River which flows
through North Vietnam). However, as it was during the period of the
Old China, the botanists did not pay serious attention to its economic
value or pursue any further study of it.
By the time the Hsi-shuang-pan-na Tropical Botanical Garden
was established by the Kunming Botanical Research Institute of the
Academia Sinica in 1949, the cultivation of the oil melon became one
of its crucial research projects. Successive scores of botanical
workers left no corner of the tropical forests unturned in search of
the living habits and cultivation method of the oil melon, collected
over 10,000 seeds, and experimented on their transplanting.
As they were ignorant of the habits of this wild tropical
plant, when the seed was sown too deep, it would not obtain adequate
air and moisture, and the sprouting rate would be very low; when the
shading was not right, it would not receive sufficient sunshine, and
its development would be retarded; when over-exposed to the sun, it
would wilt. Furthermore, due to the shortage of rich organic ferti-
lizer in tropical forests, the growth was unsatisfactory. The re-
searchers dug out the rotted seeds from the ground for study, made
careful records of the progress of the plant, and improved the culti-
vation method in regard to the moisture, soil, fertilizer, sunlight,
and temperature. After repeated experiments, the growth pattern of
the oil melon was discovered, and a series of cultivation techniques,
including seeding and seedling care, transplanting, and management,
were mastered.
Originally, the wild oil melon requires 2 to 3 years to flower
and fruit, but, by_;, cultivation, it blooms in 8 months and bears
fruit the following year. In addition, the wild plant produces 10 to
20 fruits per plant, but, by cultivation, it produces 50 to over,100.
Another outcome of the research requiring special mention is
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the success of propagation by cuttings. As mentioned before, the oil
melon is dioecian, and the male produces no fruit. TtJhen seeds are
sown, there will be approximately 500 male plants out of 1,000. In
other words, half of them will bear no fruit. On top thereof, the
variability of seed propagation is great. Thus, if the propagation
problem was not solved, it would be very difficult to popularize the
crop extensively. At the beginning, they tried to control the ratio
of male and female plants by distinguishing their sexes from the
exterior appearance of the seed and from its chemical reaction. But
the attempt was not successful. At this point, based on the rule of
sexless propagation of plants, they broke off a branch from a female
plant in the stage of development and planted the cutting. After
several years of repeated experimenting, they found the method fea-
sible. In addition, they also discovered the proper ratio for male and
female plants. In other words, 200 male plants in 1,000 plants are
sufficient to pollinate the 800 female plants and cause them to bloom
and bear fruit. The survival rate of propagation by cuttings reached
705 or more, and that of transplanted cuttings,90%. The growth was
good. Thus, extensive cultivation of the oil melon became practical
and feasible. Besides propagation by cuttings, there are also such
means of propagation as "yobigi " (the method of bending a branch,
burying it in the gound and weighing it down, and severing it. from
the parent plant after it has rooted), seeding and seedling care,
etc. In case of propagation by seeding, fresh seeds mature well, but
seeds over 3 months old have a very low sprouting power. In case of
cuttings, the rooting rate is highest between March and September.
By the foregoing cultivation methods, the shell of the seeds
of a number of oil melons has become thin, the meat of the kernel
thick, and the number of seeds and kernels greater. The possibility
of cultivating superior varieties even more suitable for human con-
sumption has appeared.
The Beginning of Extensive Cultivation
As discussed before, the natural distribution of the oil melon
is south of latitude 24? N to the vicinity of the equator. The cli-
matic adaptation of the oil melon is relatively wide, and the area
suitable for its cultivation is far greater than its natural distri-
bution. In other words, it may be cultivated in areas under 1,600 m
elevation in temperatures not lower than -20 C. In China, many areas
in provinces south of the Yangtze, such as Chekiang, Kiangsi, Szech-
wan, and Kweichow, are suitable.
At present, the cultivation of the oil melon has advanced from
the trial stage in experimental farms to the stage of practical promo-
tion by production units. Currently, in the southern and central
parts of Yunnan , state agricultural and forestry farms and the fron-
tier defense corp, altogether more than 20 units, are cultivating it
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extensively, and the area of cultivation. has reached several hundred
mou, including scattered planting in empty spaces around residentia.
houses and concentrated planting in large areas. For example, last
year, the Meng-wang State Forestry Experimental Farm of -Ching-hung
hsien planted over 7,000 plants in 17 ha (15 ha = 1 mou) of land.
Most of them matured splendidly, and the largest plants measured 5 M.
The Hsi-shuang-pan-na unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army-.
planted over 600 plants in farms and scattered plots in recent years.
Most of them flowered and bore fruit, and some of them produced over
100 fruits. The Mo-chiang Forestry Farm and the Hua-jen Agricultural
Farm in southern and central Yunnan are trial planting it, and the
Thai farmers in the Hsi-shuang-pan-na area have begun to plant it in
empty spaces around their houses.
To popularize the oil melon cultivation techniques, the Hsi-
shuang-pan-na Tropical Botanical Garden regularly sends seeds and
relevant technical material to units cultivating the plant and as-
signs researchers to live in such units, working alongside the farm
workers, frontier defense soldiers, and Thai peasants and teaching
them the means of cultivation. The Liberation Army unit stationed
in Hsi-shuang-pan-na is extremely enthusiastic over the populariza-
tion of oil melon cultivation. Under the slogan of "Let us serve as
effective assistants to the scientists in popularizing advanced
science," it regularly sends men to the botanical garden to learn
the cultivation techniques, and many oil melon cultivation experts
are trained by lectures and practical planting at the botanical gar-
den.
while a great effort is devoted to the cultivation of the oil
melon as discussed above, mass popular planting has not yet been
launched because of the lack of sample farms for mass popularization,
the ignorance of the important value of the crop on the part of
many people, the fear of loss due to failure, the many problems con-
cerning the arrangement of funds, land, and labor, and concerning
cooperation with scientific research units, even in production units
where cultivation has been started, and the shortage of manpower on
the part of scientific research units if both research and populari-
zation are undertaken. As the People's Daily of 10 April devoted
a large space to this new crop and felt that it was urgent for the
party and government leadership organs to strengthen the guidance on
the popularization of oil melon cultivation, it appears that the
cultivation of the oil melon will be rapidly promoted from now on.
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