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TRIBUTE TO PETER M. GIDEON. 25 
TRIBUTE TO PETER M. GIDEON. 
JOHN H. STEVENS, MINNEAPOLIS. 
For over forty years Mr. Gideon was a friend of mine, so I knew him 
intimately. He may have had faults. Who has not? No one ever doubted 
his honesty. He had no superior, or an equal, as a horticulturist in the 
Northwest. He originated many new varieties of apples; some of them of 
great merit. Aside from the Wealthy, the Peter and the Gideon, he intro- 
duced other rare varieties. 
His name will be handed down to posterity, even to the end of time for 
the benefit, the great benefit, he was to mankind in introducing luxuries 
which would rival that grown by Adam in the garden of Eden. A great man 
has fallen in the horticultural world. 
TRIBUTE TO PETER M. GIDEON. 
J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT. 
In the death of Peter M. Gideon, we have lost an earnest worker in the 
developing of a pomology suited to this Northwest. He was one of the 
few pioneers who could not be overcome or swerved from his purpose by 
failures, disasters or misfortunes. At a very early day he, having tested the 
leading varieties of American apples grown in the East and South, became 
satisfied that they would not be successful here, and immediately set about 
the work of creating a hardier race of apples from seed by the crossing of 
the Siberian species with the Pyrus malus and also by planting seed of the 
most northern grown fruit. The first fruit of this work was the Wealthy, 
from seed procured from Maine, which proved to be the beginning of suc- 
cess and a grand triumph over unfavorable conditions. Encouraged by this 
success he continued from this time on to devote his whole time and energy 
to experimental work, trying the production, of seedlings by crossing varie- 
ties and species. He has distributed thousands of these trees over our state 
for trial. Many of them are coming into bearing, and some of them pro- 
ducing fruit of excellent quality, and the trees seeming to possess a degree 
of hardiness that will make it possible to extend successful apple culture 
much farther north, and becoming valuable additions to our pomology. 
His work had not been fully appreciated while he was with us, but he 
will be remembered and honored by future generations who reap the re- 
wards of his labors as a great public benefactor. 
TRIBUTE TO PETER M. GIDEON. 
WYMAN ELLIOT, MINNEAPOLIS. 
The mind that directed the hand in the early development of choice fruits 
for our state has gone hence, and today we met here to give a short resume 
of his work in horticulture. 
Peter M. Gideon was born a true horticulturist. He commenced to 
plant seed at a very early age, having planted peach stones and transplanted 
- the trees which bare fruit that he ate when he was only nine years of age, 
and from that time to his last declining years it was his chief calling and 
delight. 
