| A famous scientist, agricultural educator and main founder of modern cotton science in China, Feng Zefang (1899—1959), who witnessed modern cotton improvement in China, made brilliant achievements in cotton research, and breeding and release of cottonseeds. Therefore, integrating the learning, research and practice experience of Feng Zefang with the development of modern cotton industry will be of great significance for us to learn and grasp the knowledge of the developing process and the achievement of the research, release and education of cottonseeds improvement and the relationship among them.Feng, who was well aware of the importance of training agricultural personnel, had been engaged more than20years in the agricultural education throughout his life. Even if he was no longer a professor in a university, he still acted as a part-time teacher."Undergraduate students from the agricultural college should make use of individual thought and knowledge to solve agricultural problems, and dedicate themselves to our country, our nation and all mankind." Feng established Anyang Cotton Institude in Henan, which is the only Cotton Institute in China. He insisted on combining teaching, research and release together. He also welcomed all sorts of scholars, formed a top-ranking teacher group,compiled textbooks, and carried out the teaching method of linking theory to practice. Feng worked hard all his life and had pupils everywhere. The students educated by Feng did not let down the teacher’s expectations and play important roles in developing the cotton crop science and productive enterprises of our country.A real sense of cotton scientific research began from the first year of the ROC, chaotic time that made it hard to do cotton research and make many achievements. Feng was one of the few scholars with so many writings on the cotton industry in our country and contributed a lot to the development of cotton industry in China. He was the first in the history of China to list the complete classification form of Chinese cotton, which established the foundation of the classification of Chinese Asiatic cotton. He also pioneered genetic research on Asiatic cotton by Mendel’s Law in China, and was among the first to work on the cytology and genetics research of their offspring. Feng’s conclusion reached an advanced level in similar research field that captured the botany world’s attention from all over the world. He made a scientific verification for tree-cotton, affirmed it economic value and made a lot of efforts to release it. His cotton-planting region experiment imitated the region experiment of staple crops, which provided the scientific evidence for the release of Delfos and Stonevile. His scientific thoughts about the division of cotton-planting regions and the layout of cotton spinning industry lay an important foundation for the development commodity cotton bases and the readjustment of the layout of cotton spinning industry in China.After1937, Feng diverted his major energy to the release of cotton seeds and cotton cultivation. He was rushing the majority of cotton-growing areas in both sides of the western part of the Longhai Railway, advocating strict cottonseeds management area system, and promoting Stoneville cotton up to850,000mu in1940in Shaanxi. He overcame the difficulties in Yunnan, and vigorously promoted the development of tree-cotton. The efforts of four years resulted in70,000mu tree-cotton planting. The most prominent result was the release of Stoneville, Delfose and tree-cotton. Stoneville was released in the largest and broadest area and got the highest economic benefits. The tree-cotton had the unique contribution from the point of improving the cotton because the discovery, appraisal, breeding and release of tree-cotton were all done by our Chinese. Especially in the Anti-Japanese War period, when China was lack of raw cotton, the release of the tree-cotton made a unique and irreplaceable contribution for the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.In the20th century, China set up three national institutions for cotton research and release in different periods, Feng Zefang three times took the helm of the national cotton industry. During1934.4—1937.12, and1947.2—1949.3, Feng was appointed at the most difficult times of national cotton industry and undertook the historic mission for resuscitating China’s cotton industry. In his tenure, Feng Zefang and his colleagues complemented each other, improved the central and local cotton production improvement organization, and the operating mechanism to achieve mutual promotion of research and release. He assembled political, scientific and economic resources to greatly improve the cotton quality and production of these three periods.In the gradual development process of China’s experiential agriculture to experimental agriculture, there is an urgent need for its own leadership. Feng Zefang, who conformed to the requirements of the times, with his strong, innovative, and pragmatic spirit, carried out groundbreaking, pioneering work in cotton research, release, and personnel training, which laid the basis of modern cotton science, and thus established his irreplaceable historical status in the history of China’s modern cotton improvement.Feng Zefang’s success is no accident. It is the combination of a good a talent incubator environment and his own persistent efforts, the pursuit of personal ideals and the national socio-economic development. His spirit of learning agriculture to serve the people makes a good example for all agricultural scholars. His respectable and admirable scientific moral extols the great value of technology workers. His practical model of combining education, research, release together gives us a useful reference for resolving the agricultural issues at present and in the future. Mr. Feng’s theory of "macro-agriculture" argued that the development of agriculture requires the construction of related fields such as economy, society, education, law, traffic, politics, and the like. These opinions give us an important instruction to solve the three agricultural issues. |
PDF Full Text Request