1929
Within the field of agriculture a number of Japanese scientific results are also of primary importance for our own Soviet nation. If possible, we must soon adopt much from Japan. Our Black Sea coast is, indeed, a ‘second Japan’ with respect to climate and soils. A large amount of cultivated plants, originating from Japan, could easily be transferred to our humid subtropics: Batumi, Sukhumi and Sochi. An enormous opportunity is opening up in the near future for our humid subtropics with respect to the cultivation of tea, [1] ramie [Boehmeria nivea [L.] Gaud.], [2] mandarin oranges, bamboo, subtropical oil plants and camphor trees [Cinnamomum camphora Sieb.], to a great extent linked to research carried out in Japan and Formosa. The research institute for cultivation of tea at Shizuoka [Taiwan], which has been active for about 20 years, has done highly valuable research into many problems concerning the cultivation of tea. Within the area of fruit farming and the improvement of strains by breeding, much of the research done in Japan can be transferred to our country. The Japanese are excellent plant breeders. The Sakurajima radishes (known to reach a weight of almost 20 kg), remarkable kinds of so-called Seville oranges [Citrus aurantium L.], large-fruited plums, their unsurpassed results of breeding chrysanthemums, a multitude of Japanese decorative trees, flowering cherry trees and colourful maples all this can easily be brought over to the Soviet subtropics and even to other areas.
Notes:
- As we have previously noted, the tea industry around Batumi collapsed in the 1990s. [↩]
- A fibre plant belonging to the same family as nettles. [↩]
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