A Study On The Development Of Department Of Horticulture Of National Sun Yat-sen University (1910-1952)

Guangdong Province is located in South China.The climate and soil quality are very suitable for the growth of horticultural crops.In the late Qing Dynasty,Guangdong set up an agricultural workshop attached to the province ’s agricultural testing ground.Later,the agricultural workshop was converted into an agricultural instructor ’s workshop.The horticulture was listed as a course for the first time.The horticulture of Sun Yat-sen University took this as a starting point and opened its Centennial journey.The horticulture of Sun Yat-sen University has gone through four stages: the budding period(1910-1924),the period of comprehensive promotion(1924-1937),and the period of persistence(1937-1945),the period of rectification and development(1945-1952).In 1952,with the adjustment of colleges and departments across the country,the agricultural college affiliated to the department of horticulture was separated from Sun Yat-sen University and became an independent college.In the past half century,the subject of horticulture has grown from scratch and the subject construction had been continuously strengthened.It has successively gone through the courses of horticulture(1910),department of horticulture(1923),department of horticulture(1924),department of horticulture(1927),the group of horticulture(1939),department of horticulture(1948),and eventually became the Horticulture Department of South China Agricultural College(1952).As a pioneer in horticultural education in Guangdong,Sun Yat-sen University’s horticulture had adhered to theory and practice in the course of more than 40 years of hard schooling,and has cultivated a group of excellent horticultural talents.Besides,outstanding scientific research achievements had been made in improving cultivation techniques.These achievements have effectively promoted the industrialization of horticulture in Guangdong and the development of the fruit industry in southern China.The development of Sun Yat-sen University’s horticultural discipline presents obvious periodic characteristics,mainly reflected in such aspects as discipline construction,talent training,faculty,teaching facilities,scientific research and extension.Since its establishment,the horticulture had been adhering to the philosophy of combining teaching,scientific research,and promotion,with the mission of cultivating horticultural talents with knowledge,responsibility,and advanced production technology,focusing on the selection,breeding,cultivation of subtropical and tropical fruits and vegetables as well as the improvement of technology.During the development of Horticulture discipline,the group of teachers had been constantly enlarged,such as famous horticulturalists Wenguang Wen and Changxian Huang teaching at the school.Besides,the venues of scientific research were constantly expanding.At the beginning of the establishment of the Guangdong Provincial Agricultural Experiment Field,it had possessed horticultural experiment areas such as orchards,vegetable fields and flower gardens.With the development of the First and Second Farms,the area of horticultural research sites were also expanded.In the Agricultural College during the period of National Guangdong University,horticulture students began to practice on the First Farm.In 1928,the horticulture unit opened up 21 acres of research land on the Second Farm.In1929,the experimental site area of the gardening unit increased to 2635 acres,second only to the forest unit,and it was also equipped with a research room,a laboratory,a breeding room,a shady room,a brick hotbed,and a fruit ripening room as well as other scientific research facilities.Horticultural scientific research and promotion work had also achieved positive results,and nearly 200 horticultural works were published in Guangdong Agriculture and Forestry Monthly and Nongsheng.During the initial post-liberation period,it established cooperation with a number of domestic institutions to promote the integration of industry,academia and research.At the same time,it boosted scientific research with production,promoted excellent fruit tree varieties and improved cultivation techniques to farmers,and improves agricultural production.All these have laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the department of horticulture.This article systematically sorted out the process of arduous establishment and development of Sun Yat-sen University’s horticulture and the development process and status were summarized.Moreover,it can convey useful inspiration.