The Bessarabian School of Horticulture was founded in 1842 on the basis of the Regulation "On Horticultural Institutions within the Ministry of State Domains", aiming to prepare horticulturists and to spread the best horticultural species in Bessarabia. The 10 pupils admitted to the school in 1844 were sons of peasants from state estates and their education was subsidized by the state. They were taught predominantly practical skills: fruit growing, silkworm growing, tobacco and fruit drying. Three teachers were employed in the process: one for practical applications, one for Russian, arithmetic, calligraphy, and a priest - for religion, for church singing and Latin. In the first 20 years of the school's existence (until 1864), 82 specialists were trained. The Horticulture School of Chisinau has been run for over three decades by A.D. Denking, a well-known gardener-researcher, and was recognized as a scientific center of excellence in the southwest of the Russian Empire winning many awards at the international exhibitions vine, dried fruit, silk donuts and other farm produce. The Inferior School of Horticulture (1842) was reorganized and renamed The Secondary Wine School in 1891.