110 years of L. P. Simyrenko's entry into the world of capital labor "Crimean industrial fruit growing"

110 years of L. P. Simyrenko's capital work "Crimean industrial fruit growing" in the world

"Crimean industrial horticulture" – the fundamental work of the famous fruit breeder and pomologist Levko Platonovych Simyrenko. The book became a tabletop for many specialists and played a significant role in the further development of not only domestic, but also global fruit growing. The brilliant scientist substantiated the development of industrial fruit growing as an important branch of the economically developed countries of the world. He was the first in the scientific world to introduce the terms "industrial fruit growing", "industrial garden" and "industrial grade". This is a kind of encyclopedia of Crimean fruit growing and its centuries-old history, an example of versatile, in-depth study and thorough pomological description of varieties of fruit crops. The researches of L. P. Simyrenko are of great interest not only to specialists in horticultural industries, but also to historians, particularly Crimean historians, as it describes the history of fruit growing on the peninsula and objectively highlights the role of the ethnic groups that inhabited the Crimea in the development of agricultural culture. Also, the book is a kind of guide, as it contains descriptions and photos of Crimean monuments. The manuscript of these studies was completed by the author in 1908 and submitted to a competition announced on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Russian Imperial Horticultural Society. The work of the outstanding Ukrainian researcher with a volume of more than 2,000 pages won the Great Gold Medal and valuable awards of the imperial family. Levko Platonovych received an offer to publish work for public funds. In order to make the publication cheaper, the author agreed not only to be its editor, but also to adjust the set. He also refused the fee and agreed to settlement by books. After the edition was published, Levko Platonovych gave the book to large libraries for free and gave it to many friends. All those who financed the publication got large lots of the book. Thus, it was not commercial, but charitable. In 1912, the secretary of the Russian Imperial Society of Horticulture, Vasyl Gomilevsky, wrote: "… In every library, the work of L. P. Simyrenko will become a rich acquisition; it will be a precious gift and a reward for the laborer in the orchard who lacks the means to purchase this publication. A happy country in which such workers as L.P. Simyrenko live and work.

Levko Platonovych planned to publish three large volumes. The first of them was dedicated to the history of Crimean horticulture, analysis of its condition and pomological description of the most common apple and pear varieties. In the second volume, all data on stone, nut, berry and some subtropical crops were collected. The publishing committee planned to release the book as early as 1910. It was entrusted to the well-known Moscow typolithographic society of M. I. Kushnaryov, and the third volume, which was supposed to make up the "Atlas of Fruits", had to be prepared in Munich due to the lack of the necessary polygraphic base. But Lev Platonovych, who was very demanding of himself, repeatedly supplemented the text and made changes to the manuscript, due to which the publication of the first volume was delayed and saw the light of day only in 1912. The release of the first volume of this work became the most significant event in the world horticultural science of that time. For several years, both in our country and abroad, leading horticultural publications published exciting reviews. Prominent figures of horticulture in Belgium, Italy, France, Germany, Poland and many other countries highly appreciated the research of the Ukrainian scientist. The work was awarded the Gold Medal of the French National Society of Horticulture (1913), the Great Gold Medal named after Steven at the All-Russian Exhibition of Fruit Growing (1913), the Great Gold Medal of Petrograd at the International Horticultural Exhibition (1914). Foreign pomological and horticultural societies came forward with a proposal to republish this epoch-making scientific work. However, the First World War, which broke out in 1914, crossed out these intentions and plans of the author. The extremely valuable original drawings for the "Fruit Atlas" handed over to the Munich publishing house Bruckmann were irretrievably lost, according to the scientist's daughter, and the manuscript of the second volume was also lost in the Moscow printing house of M.I. Kushnaryov during the war. A sad fate also befell the first volume of the scientific work of the brilliant scientist, published in 1912: in the inquisitional fires of the Enkavedists during the 30s, almost the entire edition of the first volume "Crimean Industrial Fruit Growing" was destroyed. 1912 edition. But this masterpiece of world pomology is in the collection of scientific publications of 1901-1917 from the funds of our library, which constitute national heritage, and it is a unique opportunity for everyone who wants to get acquainted with the creative heritage of Levko Platonovich Simyrenko. Some of the illustrations of this book are given below.