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Vavilov

A guest of Ethiopia

March 10, 2010

January
1927

I was promised the papers within a short time and indeed after a few days they were delivered into my hands. … In this important document with the national emblem in the form of a lion, the Russian traveller was called a guest of Ethiopia and all local rulers were ordered to render him full [...]

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Some confusion between wheat and maize

March 1, 2010

January
1927

I presented the government with an agricultural map of the USSR, just published by the Institute of Plant Industry, and gave a short review of the problems concerning the expedition and about the agricultural management of my country. I also presented a copy of my new book, Centres of Origin of the Cultivated Plants, in [...]

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Eucalyptus anchors Addis Ababa

February 26, 2010

January
1927

After completing the expedition around Harer I returned to Dire Dawa and went from there by train to Addis Ababa. The wonderful expedition around Harer was considered somewhat venturesome. It turned out that to travel around in the country it was necessary to have an official paper from the government, which could be obtained only [...]

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An animal collector in Abyssinia

February 24, 2010

January
1927

Harer itself is the centre of the coffee market. Abyssinia is no doubt the native land of the coffee tree (Coffea arabica). Enormous groves of coffee are concentrated in the southern parts of the country. The ripe fruits are zealously collected by the inhabitants and brought to Harer. Considerable plantations of a kind of coffee [...]

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First encounter with teff and noog

February 22, 2010

January
1927

For the first time I saw some of the special endemic plants of Abyssinia, such as the peculiar grain called teff (Eragrostis abyssinica), a particular kind of small millet that produces a first-class flour used for flat-cakes in Abyssinia. This endemic Abyssinian grass was undoubtedly first taken into cultivation in this country.
There was also a [...]

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Wheats not known anywhere else in the world

February 19, 2010

December
1926

The characteristic wheat, cultivated in enormous amounts in the Harer region, no doubt belongs to a special kind, different from everything I had seen and collected in other agricultural areas of the world. The fields display an incredible mixture of varieties. It was necessary to collect hundreds of ears to obtain a representation of the [...]

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Voina, dega, and dega voina: the view from Dire Dawa

February 17, 2010

December
1926

The main agricultural area of Abyssinia is situated at an altitude between 1600 and 3000 metres. In regard to climate and vegetation Abyssinia can be divided into three main zones: the ‘voina,’ situated below 1800 metres with an almost tropical climate; the ‘dega,’ the alpine region reaching altitudes of 2400-3000 m; and the ‘dega voina,’ [...]

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Into the interior of Abyssinia

February 15, 2010

27 December
1926

On 27 December 1926, I rode on the train into the interior of Abyssinia. At that time the trains in Abyssinia operated only during daytime. After passing through the Somalian savannah with its sparse acacias, the train approached a mountainous area. Here a steep climb began. The Abyssinian plateau rises above the Somalian savannah [...]

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Special sheep breeds in Somalia

February 8, 2010

December
1926

To my surprise everything turned out considerably better than I had expected. Actually, a regulation concerning visas for entering Abyssinia never existed. The captain, who took my passport for the purpose of obtaining the signature of the governor, remarked approvingly, while questioning me about the October Revolution, “it will work” in French “ça ira” a [...]

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Disease susceptible Egyptian agriculture

February 5, 2010

Temporarily leaving Gary Nabhan at Siwa Oasis, we rejoin Vavilov as he makes his way into Abyssinia.

December
1926

After the lengthy procedure of passing through the Suez Canal, the steamer proceeded into the calm Red Sea with its truly yellowish-red water. Both the eastern and western shores are uninhabited. As is well-known, all agriculture in Egypt is [...]

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