The cultivation of rice reaches not only Sapporo but much farther north, as far, according to professors in Sapporo, as to 50-60 degrees northern latitude. These are the fastest-ripening kinds of rice. It was necessary to somehow obtain samples of it for cultivation of rice in the Soviet north. However, in contrast to Americans and Europeans, the Japanese were very stingy. As a matter of fact, we were refused any. They pointed to the necessity of obtaining a special permit from the government. In other words, the usual story again, the well-known diplomatic delay. Later on, at an exhibition in Korea, we obtained a large quantity of the necessary rice from Sakhalin. At this exhibition all parts of the Japanese dominion were represented.
The rice [Oryza sativa L.] of Japan consists mainly of white-flowered types without awns. As demonstrated by subsequent research, a whole series of transitions can be seen from late to early-ripening varieties, which can advance to the farthest north of Japan.
Hops [Humulus lupulus L.] are cultivated on the island of Hokkaido. A lot of actinidia fruits [Actinidia chinensis Planck.], reminiscent in taste of European gooseberries, were sold in the market places. We did not find them to be cultivated here. Apparently they were distributed only in the wild form. With Professor Akemine I saw for the first time in the wild the Japanese burdock [Arctium lappa L.], the vegetable plant called ‘konjaku‘ [Amorphophallus rivieri Dur. var. konjac [Schott], Engl.] [1] and butter-bur [Petasites japonicus [Sieb. Zucc.] Maxim.].
Notes:- I confess I had no idea that this species, or any others of its genus, were edible. Reading the details, I’m not sure they are. [↩]
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“The cultivation of rice reaches (…) 50-60 degrees northern latitude [in Sakhalin].”
Really? Sakhalin, now a part of the Russian Federation, is the large island just north of Hokkaido. It extends from 46 to 54.5 °N. The part south of 50°N was part of Japan between 1905 and 1945. So let’s say up to 50°?
That still is very far north. There is rice in Hokkaido today, as it was in Vavilov’s time. An important area of rice research in the area is cold tolerance, particularly to diminish sterility induced by cold irrigation water. I could imagine rice in some sheltered areas in southern coastal Sakhalin, but as for N as 50°N seems unlikely.
The Russian Agro-atlas does not show any rice on Sakhalin, so if there is any today, it won’t be much. Note, however, the small rice area near Vladivostok (on the Pacific coast just N. of China) at 45°N. Also note the rice production area NW of the Caspian Sea. This is one of the northernmost rice production area in the world. It is just south of 50°N, but has a continental climate with a much warmer summer than Sakhalin (July mean maximum temperatures of 30°C vs 20°C). The northernmost rice production (just north of 50°) is probably the rice in northern Heiliongjiang province, NE China, with a July mean maximum temperature of about 25°C. In this area, rice production has expanded rapidly over the past decades, perhaps facilitated by the strong warming trend observed in that region.
All Vavilov had is hearsay from unwilling professors. It would be of interest to find out more about rice cultivation in Japanese Sakhalin. I think it is certainly possible there was some. If Japanese colonists went there, they likely tried planting rice (apart from fishing, which should be more profitable). Does anyone have references to rice cultivation in specific locations on Sakhalin?
Also, is there an easy to way to access the collections Vavilov made? Is there a database where you can ask for “Collector = Vavilov; Location=from Sakhalin obtained in Korea’)? And if so, are the seeds available? And do we know if they were used in breeding for new varieties?
@Robert -
Many thanks for your illuminating comment.
I hadn’t checked on an atlas but you are right, that is very far north. I did, however, check databases and I certainly could not find anything where it was easy to pick up material collected by Vavilov. I’m still looking.
GBIF records two rices and an oats as far north as 44N, but does not say who collected them, and I have not (yet) been able to get into the USDA’s system to investigate further.
What I meant to ask is whether there is a single source where one can access all the records of the early (pre-1940) Russian collections by Vavilov and colleagues (e.g., spudmen Bukasov and Juzepczuk). I looked at the obvious place, where you probably looked too: the VIR database. There are 6 rice accessions (numbers between 1635-1650) that appear to have been collected in Japan in 1939 (EURISCO has the same information). And a few earlier accessions. But the information is very scant. I wonder if there is more information available (on paper) and if anyone is (interested in) doing a project to make these data available more completely and systematically; it would be terrific complement to this blog. Think of the mash-ups! Perhaps the next thing for the AgroAtlas crew?
Vavilov’s writings are of great interest without any existing seed samples, but the real glory is in the combination of the two.
You can look for cold tolerant rice material in the genebank of Japan’s National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (they’re mostly from Nepal):
http://www.gene.affrc.go.jp/htbin/plant/SEARCH/common/e_pl_tokusei_menu.cgi
But I don’t see Sakhalin in the list of geographic places to search:
http://www.gene.affrc.go.jp/htbin/plant/SEARCH/common/e_pl_raireki.cgi?torp=0&s_syurui=01001