Развитие учения В.Р. Вильямса по научным основам луговодства (к 160-летию академика Василия Робертовича Вильямса)

Abstract

The ideas of academician V.R. Williams served as the basis for the development of meadow science and meadow farming in our country. He gave a comprehensive assessment of the meadow as an element of the geographical agricultural landscape. He was interested in studies of meadow flora, its habitat, soils, natural meadows, and ways to improve them. At the Department of Soil Science and Agriculture of the Moscow Agricultural Institute, Professor V.R. Williams taught courses on meadow farming and forage plant culture. Research on meadow science and meadow farming was the foundation for the creation of a demonstration farm, a station, and the State Meadow Institute in 1922. Throughout the history of the Institute's development, they have remained and remain among its most important areas of scientific research. V.R. Williams proved the leading role of perennial grasses in the vital activity of meadow communities, in the productive and soil-forming processes. He introduced the concept of the types of tillering of cereals — rhizomatous, loose and dense. In the conditions of cultivated grassland, due to the long-term preservation of the first and second stages of the development of the meadow (rhizome and loose shrub), stable productive longevity of phytocenoses is ensured. An important merit of V.R. Williams is the study of the sod-forming process — the interaction of meadow vegetation with soil. The teaching of V.R. Williams about the turf process was a prerequisite for the development of a grass-field system of agriculture, as well as for the creation of short-term sown grass stands in grassland crop rotations.