Rytov, Mikhail

Rytov, Mikhail Vasil’evich 

Born Jan. 4(16), 1846, in Novomirgorod, in what is now Kirovograd Oblast; died Apr. 17, 1920, in Gorki, in what is now Mogilev Oblast. Russian agronomist and scientist concerned with vegetable and fruit cultivation.

Rytov graduated from the law faculty (1871) and the division of natural science of the physics and mathematics faculty (1878) of Moscow University. From 1879 through 1920 he taught at the Gory-Goretsk Agricultural School in Gorki, Mogilev Province. In 1880 he organized a plant nursery there for experimenting with agricultural crops and testing new cultivation methods. His major works were on the biology of vegetable and fruit plants. Rytov studied the effect of a scion on a stock and acknowledged the possibility of vegetative hybridization. He proposed propagation of apple trees by seeds.

WORKS

Kratkii uchebnik ogorodnichestva i plodovodstva, parts 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1895–96.
Rukovodstvo k ogorodnichestvu, vols. 1–3. St. Petersburg, 1897–99.
Obshchee uchenie o vozdelyvaemykh rasteniiakh. Moscow, 1896.

REFERENCE

Berdyshev, A. P. Mikhail Vasil’evich Rytov: Russkii agrobiolog. Moscow, 1951.