Izmailskii, Aleksandr Alekseevich

Izmail’skii, Aleksandr Alekseevich 

Born Feb. 22 (Mar. 6), 1851, in Petrovski District, present-day Saratov Oblast; died Oct. 19 (Nov. 1), 1914. Russian scientist and agronomist.

Izmail’skii graduated from the Petrovskoe Agricultural and Forestry Academy (now the K.A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy). From 1879 to 1883 he lectured on agriculture at the Kherson Zemstvo School (now the Kherson Agricultural Institute). From 1883 he managed a private estate near Poltava and served as vice-president of the Poltava Agricultural Society.

Izmail’skii’s scientific work dealt with the history of the development of the steppes and with the moisture content of soils and methods of combating drought in the steppes of southern Russia. He ascribed great importance to such agrotechnical measures as deep plowing, strip fallow, tilling across the slopes, and weed control, and he emphasized the importance of fertilizer in controlling drought. He was the first to conduct extensive laboratory investigations of soil moisture on permanent test tracts with respect to different states of soil cultivation. Besides questions of soil science, Izmail’skii also worked on problems of animal husbandry and agricultural entomology.

WORKS

Vlazhnost’pochvy v sviazi s kul’turnym ee sostoianiem. St. Petersburg, 1882.
Kak vysokhla nasha step’. Poltava, 1893.
Vlazhnost’pochvy igruntovaia voda v sviazis rel’efom mestnosti i kul’turnym sostoianiem poverkhnosti pochvy. Poltava, 1894.
Izbr. soch. Moscow, 1949.