Pamirs

Apples: a long journey

October 21, 2009

Vavilov’s fascination with the history of the apple is still alive today as academics, enthusiasts and conservationists all try to understand the apple’s convoluted story and its relevance in the modern world. BBC news kicked off with a slideshow dedicated to Kazakhstan’s wild apples last Monday. This picture shows some of the surviving wild apple [...]

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A natural laboratory

October 23, 2008

1916 Autumn In essence, the Pamirs are, so to say, a natural laboratory, but this area is, of course, not a primary centre. It was only extreme need that had forced the population to escape into such a natural confinement. There the cultivated flora itself had in respect of its morphological properties a clearly secondary [...]

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Exceeding our expectations

October 22, 2008

The crops of wheat were mixed with spring rye, peas, chickling vetch and so-called bitter vetch. The crops were exclusively irrigated. The lack of rain caused an exceptional whiteness of the ripening bread grains. There is neither rust nor any mildew here. Indeed, much of the covered smut is washed off in the mountain brooks, [...]

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What should an agronomist do in the Pamirs?

October 21, 2008

1916 Autumn About 100 km from Khorog, the agriculture in the valley of the Gunt river comes to a halt. The altitude there is about 3600 metres. There cattle are replaced by yaks. The yak endures the rarefied atmosphere very well and is indispensable for travelling through snowdrifts during winter. When it is necessary to [...]

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Pamir agriculture is primitive

October 16, 2008

1916 Autumn The agriculture is of a primitive nature. Besides simple wooden plows harnessed to a pair of oxen or cows, the Tajiks of the Pamirs know of no other implements. Often the plots to be sown are so small that there is no space for plowing. Then the soil is worked by hoes. To [...]

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Grains of the Pamirs

October 15, 2008

1916 Autumn With respect to dialect, the inhabitants of Shugnan and Rushan differ from the people in Darvaz, who speak a purely Tajik language. This circumstance attracted my attention since in addition to the difference in language there were also some things concerning the appearance of the composition of the cultivated flora, used by the [...]

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In Vavilov’s first footsteps

October 12, 2008

[S]uddenly a Kirghizian uprising occurred in Semirech’e and consequently the route to Mongolia via Turkestan was closed. Only later did [Vavilov] tell his family and friends that his Krghizian guides had deserted him; that he had been attacked by a mob but somehow escaped from them on foot, only to be arrested by local officials. [...]

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Vavilov sets off on his first expedition

October 11, 2008

A. I. Ipat’ev, was a cousin of Nikolay and the Vavilov family historian. He remembered his cousin’s departure: One clear summer day in 1916 an automobile, a great rarity then, pulled up to the house. Nikolai Ivanovich came up to me while I was sitting in the garden and greeted me. He was, as always, [...]

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Across the Demri-Shaurg glacier

October 10, 2008

1916 Autumn Let us return to the peoples of the Pamirs and the expedition itself. On the one hand it turned out to be much harder, but on the other hand to be much easier than expected. When back from Persia in the autumn of 1916, I intended as a matter of fact to go [...]

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Cotton, mulberry and hemp

October 9, 2008

1916 Autumn The third zone contains even more crops. Among the field crops there is much cotton although it is encountered to a minor extent within the second zone as well. … These annuals give a pitiful impression: 20-30 cm, with a pair of leaves and few capsules. It is hard to tell directly whether [...]

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