The earliest horticultural education institution in modern China was the Horticulture Department of Suzhou Agricultural School, which was established in 19 12. The three horticultural schools established before 192 1 all belong to technical secondary schools. 192 1 year, Southeast University established the earliest horticulture department in China, with Wu Gengmin as the main backbone teacher. During his five years in office, he served as the teaching and internship task of five main courses in the Department of Horticulture-fruit tree gardening, vegetable gardening, flower gardening, vegetable cultivation and general gardening. He compiled four lectures on fruit trees, vegetables, seasonal vegetable cultivation and general gardening according to Japanese data and the reality of China. Although Wu Gengmin had never studied flowers, in order to teach this course well, he bought a complete set of herbaceous woody flower seeds from French Vilmorin Seed Company at 192 1, planted them according to the instructions on the seed bag and managed them personally. After observation and investigation, he opened a flower gardening course at 1923 and prepared a handout. In addition, it also provides translated Japanese materials for landscape design. These five self-compiled handouts laid the foundation for the construction of higher horticultural teaching materials in China. Wu Gengmin used his Textbook of Vegetable Horticulture instead of the Lectures on Vegetable Horticulture taught by American scholar Hencook in the part-time course of agriculture in Jinling University. 192 1 during the summer vacation, teachers and horticultural researchers from secondary horticulture schools in China gathered in Southeast University for one-month professional training. The textbooks used in fruit tree horticulture, vegetable horticulture, flower horticulture and ornamental dendrology are all written by Wu Gengmin. He made great contributions to the establishment of the Horticulture Department of the first university in China.
From 1927 to 1933, Wu Gengmin opened a large orchard as a base for internship, seed selection and promotion during his six years of teaching in the Agricultural College of Zhejiang University. 1934 also aided the construction of the Horticulture Department of the Agricultural College of Shandong University; 1935 invited by Yu youren, president of Nanjing Kuomintang government supervision institute, he served as professor, dean of horticulture department, director of horticulture field, and president of affiliated higher vocational school. Immediately after he took office, he hired teachers, technicians and technicians from Shandong, Zhejiang and other provinces, and opened up about 200 acres of orchards, 100 acres of vegetable gardens and 400 acres of nurseries for teaching practice, which soon made the teaching conditions of the school look brand-new.
Wu Gengmin combines theory with practice in teaching, emphasizing that "learning is not only from mouth to mouth, from eyes to heart, but also from hands to feet." As the saying goes, more field trips are enough. "He attaches great importance to on-site teaching and often leads students to practice in person. He is especially good at pruning fruit trees, and he is skilled and handy in pruning and loosening peaches, pears and grapes. Through on-site teaching, students can quickly master pruning techniques.
He insisted on the view that "shine on you is better than blue", thought that his knowledge was limited, and thought that his fame was mainly caused by the times. He often says modestly, "I have only done some preliminary work in agricultural and horticultural science." He has high hopes for young people and encourages them to study hard and embark on the road of gardening technology.
Over the past 70 years, Wu Gengmin has selflessly contributed all his knowledge and trained a large number of senior horticultural talents, some of whom have become famous horticultural scientists at home and abroad. His style of teaching and educating people is deeply left in the students' minds.
Pay attention to on-the-spot investigation and study, and scientifically sum up the experience of the masses.
Wu Gengmin has always attached great importance to the production practice, and applied modern horticultural science knowledge to analyze and summarize the vegetable production experience of China Fruit, covering Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Beijing and Shanghai. From 1934 to 1956, fruit trees in Qingdao, Shandong, watermelons in Dezhou, melons in Yidu, peaches in Feicheng, pears in Laiyang, pears in Binxian, Shaanxi, pears in Lingbao Jujube in Henan, pears in Yungui, walnuts and plums in Meitan, Guizhou, especially the special vegetables, Chinese cabbage and pickled mustard tuber in China. Such as Shandong Feicheng bergamot, Yunnan Chenggong Zhubaoli, Guizhou Meitan Jingui pear, Qingcui plum, big persimmon flower, thin walnut, cotton walnut, Henan Lingbaoling jujube, long jujube, round jujube, Zhejiang Hangzao bamboo shoot, Jianxing green bamboo shoot, late-flowering radish, Zhejiang University long radish, cotton-tailed silkworm, elephant bud and so on. For example, 1934, when commenting on the idea of Feicheng peach cultivation in different places, thought it could be cultivated in nearby areas with similar conditions. To 1990, this assertion has been confirmed by Luo Xin's scientific research results of "Feicheng Peach Cultivation in Different Places" in Horticulture Department of Shandong Agricultural University. 1987, Wu Gengmin confirmed for the first time that Gao Orange (also called Yu Orange) produced in Yuhuan and Wenling, Zhejiang Province is very similar to grapefruit, and its cultivation history is earlier than Barbados 183 years, and grapefruit is a hybrid of grapefruit and orange. Because Barbados began to introduce grapefruit in 1707, the grapefruit produced in this area will not be earlier than 1707. On this basis, he believes that southern Zhejiang is the origin of grapefruit, which will spread to all parts of the world in the future. During his stay in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he also conducted many production experiments in Meitan, Guizhou Province, such as the multi-cropping cultivation experiment of sweet potato, the study of onion cultivation method, the preservation experiment of cold potato seeds, the annual supply cultivation experiment of peas, and the comparative experiment of various root vegetables. These experimental results have obviously promoted the improvement of local vegetable cultivation techniques and vegetable supply. For example, the yield per mu of sweet potato in Meitan was only about 500 kg. Through investigation and study, Wu Gengmin grasped the two links of fertilization and cutting and conducted field experiments. Before cutting, plant ash and vegetable cake hotbed were used to raise seedlings, and oblique cutting was changed to horizontal cutting, so that the yield per mu was increased to 2232 kg. Another example is that onions are planted at a reasonable density, and the number of seedlings planted per mu is increased from1.2000 to 20000, and the yield is increased by 33%, reaching 2672 kg per mu. Onions were successfully planted for the first time in the local area and soon spread.
Actively promote horticultural varieties and popularize cultivation techniques.
Wherever Wu Gengmin went, he introduced and popularized many varieties and cultivation techniques of horticultural plants at home and abroad. 19 19 In the winter, Wu Gengmin completed his study in Xingjin Horticultural Experimental Field in Japan and sent five excellent fruit varieties (including oranges, persimmons, peaches, grapes, loquat, etc.). ) from the field to Hangzhou Wuyun Farm (now Hangzhou Qianjiang Orchard) for trial planting, so that all the cultivation techniques of Japanese Xingjinyuan Art Workshop were adopted. Hangzhou honey pear, a famous brand fruit in Zhejiang, is very famous in supermarkets in Hong Kong, Australia and Canada. It is the Japanese huanghuali introduced by Wu Gengmin. Huanghua is a famous new pear variety bred by Zhejiang Agricultural University in 1970s. It is the female parent of Imamura Li Xia (later renamed Huangmi) introduced by Wu Gengmin. Pruning techniques of pear trees in China also originated from Japanese pear tree pruning techniques used in Wuyun Farm' Yue Ming' and' Sake'. 192 1 year, the vegetable hotbed of Chengxian Street Farm of Southeast University in Nanjing was copied by him according to the wooden hotbed of Xingjin Horticultural Experimental Field in Japan. This is the earliest vegetable hotbed in China. In the same year, he bought flower seeds from the French company Fechmohan, planted them in the garden of Southeast University, and collected and promoted them, which made many European flowers spread in China for the first time, including Petunia, Flukau, Cyclamen, calceolaria, Gedaihua, Dahlia and many other flower names.
In July, 1924, Wu Gengmin, Wang Shuncheng, Ge, Hu, Lu Feizhi and others presided over the improvement and popularization of the horticultural plan in Jiangsu Province. At that time, a general farm was set up in the horticultural farm of Southeast University, and a branch farm was set up in Suzhou Agricultural School. The improvement plan has three points: (1) Collect excellent varieties in Jiangsu Province, select the best varieties from them for breeding, and promote them through competitions; (2) Collect domestic excellent varieties and select varieties adapted to local conditions for promotion; (3) Select excellent and high-yielding overseas seedling varieties in Luo Zhi, check whether they are suitable for local conditions in this province, and then propagate and popularize them. As a result, the Department of Agricultural Sciences of Southeast University collected more than 400 kinds of fruit trees, more than 200 kinds of vegetables and many flowers. The Department of Agricultural Sciences of Jinling University also collected 140 kinds of fruit trees. These scientific researches have played an important role in enriching the resources of horticultural varieties in Jiangsu and China.
When Wu Gengmin taught at 1935 Northwest Agriculture and Forestry College, he saw that the local economy and agricultural production were backward, and there were few fruits, vegetables and flowers. People often have no food to eat, so they only use pepper, salt, soy sauce and vinegar when eating. He tried every means to buy fruit seedlings (apples, pears, peaches, persimmons and grapes) from Japan and Shandong. Invite Shandong gardeners to cultivate demonstrations. About 65,438+000 mu of vegetable garden was built in Mishima, 200 mu of orchard was built in Erdao, 400 mu of gardening nursery was built in Faxi Temple, and flowers were arranged on campus. The surplus fruit seedlings were planted in Doukou Farm, Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province. These horticultural plants introduced from home and abroad have been successfully planted in the local area, and now they have been promoted in the northwest provinces, among which apples have been "settled" in the plateau areas of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Shanxi provinces. Up to now, these areas have become the production bases of high-quality apples in China, and their products are exported at home and abroad.
At present, tomatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflower, Shandong cabbage and pickled mustard tuber cultivated in Zhejiang Province have been successfully introduced and planted from home and abroad, and have now become staple vegetables in the local market. Among them, mustard tuber is the seed of water chestnut, which he brought from Meitan after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. It was planted in Hangzhou to make mustard tuber and then planted in winter paddy fields. The local people took the lead in using refined small packaging for this mustard tuber, which was well received by consumers. Now it has been popularized in Zhejiang province, especially Yuyao and Cixi counties, and has become a famous product in Zhejiang. The nationally famous' Zhejiang Dachang' radish was bred by Wu Gengmin from Gudang Farmhouse in the suburb of Hangzhou on 1949. After systematic breeding, it has become a large and long high-yield variety, which has been extended to China provinces and neighboring countries such as North Korea since 1954. Many strains of Citrus Satsuma currently cultivated in China were also introduced from Japan when he founded Zhejiang Horticultural Experimental Field in 1937. Wu Gengmin has made many important contributions in introducing improved varieties and technologies of fruits and vegetables, improving the supply of fruits and vegetables for Chinese people and greening the environment.
Writing for life and leaving precious wealth for gardening
Wu Gengmin has a wide range of knowledge and a strong memory. He is proficient in Japanese, English and French, fluent in Chinese and good at writing. Based on the experience of investigation and research, referring to the data of China, Japan, Europe and the United States, and contacting China, he wrote many monographs and papers. According to incomplete statistics, 35 books and 38 papers have been published, and there are many popular science articles and translations, about100000 words. These include Vegetable Cultivation in China, Fruit Pruning, Introduction to Fruit Gardening, Taxonomy of China Temperate Fruit Trees, Cultivation of Woody Edible Oil Crops, Japanese-English Vocabulary of Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture, etc. Among them, "Citrus Pruning Theory and Technology" won the 1983 National Excellent Science and Technology Book Award, and vegetable cultivation in China became one of the largest in the United States and Japan. In addition, he also put forward many production suggestions, such as Opinions on Developing Fruit Tree Cultivation in Guangxi, Opinions on Improving Horticultural Level in Shandong Province, Economic Cultivation Areas of Main Fruit Trees in China, Suggestions on Expanding Hangzhou Scenic Area, etc. These suggestions also have practical guiding significance. He also wrote many popular science articles, such as Vegetables in the Motherland, Fruit Trees in China and Speech on Fruit Tree Cultivation.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, the intellectual policy was implemented. He was very moved. Although he is old and his eyesight, hearing and memory are declining, he is still full of fighting spirit and determined to continue to contribute to the great cause of the four modernizations of the motherland. In a short period of 10, he published 4 monographs with a total of 3.34 million words, which became the most written and published monograph in his life. By 1989, two manuscripts, about 900,000 words, have been completed, namely, Cultivation of Deciduous Fruit Trees in Temperate Zone of China and Diagnostic Cultivation Techniques of Satsuma Citrus.
During his academic career of more than 70 years, Wu Gengmin devoted his life to the cause of horticulture education in the motherland and made outstanding contributions to the construction and development of horticulture science in China. 199 1 year165438+1October 4th, he finished his life at the age of 95. His achievements and style of teaching and educating people will remain in people's hearts forever.
(Source: Biography of China Science and Technology Experts, Author: Wu Guanglin)