296 A?i7ials of Horticulhire . 



PETER KIEFFER. 



Peter Kieffer, the originator of the Kieffer pear, died at 

 Roxborough, Philadelphia, November 7th. He was born in 

 Alsace in 1812, and came to America in 1834. The following 

 account of him is from his friend, Thomas Meehan : 



"Mr. Peter Kieffer was a near neighbor of mine. He was, when a young 

 man, educated as a gardener, and I may say highly educated, much above 

 the average class. He came to America from Alsace. He was of French 

 descent. He was gardener for many years at Mount Airy to Mr. James 

 Gowen, long known as President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural 

 Society, and kept up his connections with friends in the Old World, oc- 

 casionally introducing rare plants and trees, many of which are still existing 

 in Germantown. Being of a frugal and saving disposition, after some years 

 he had means enough to purchase a few acres of ground near here, on which 

 he established a nursery and market garden. Among his introductions was 

 the Chinese Sand pear. His land here increased in value to such an extent 

 that he sold it for a considerable advance, and with the proceeds bought a 

 farm near Roxborough, about three miles from where I now live ; on this 

 ground he transplanted some of his Sand pears, planting them among some 

 Bartlett pear trees. The branches of the Bartlett pears and the Chinese 

 Sand pears intermixed. There was a great demand for Sand pear trees by 

 the neighbors for ornamental gardening, on account of the delightful odor 

 of the fruit, besides the thrifty, healthy growth of the foliage, and he raised 

 seedlings from his trees in order to supply this demand. On one occasion 

 he noticed among the seedlings one with somewhat different foliage than 

 the rest ; this he saved for himself, and when it bore fruit, the one which 

 we now know as Kieffer pear was the result. It is, of course, only guessed 

 at from this that the Kieffer pear is a hybrid between the Sand pear and 

 the Bartlett. I mention this because some have contended that this is not 

 a hybrid, but simply a sport, without any real intermixture of pollen from 

 the Bartlett tree. Of course, we are all entitled to our opinion, and my 

 opinion is, that it is really a hybrid. Mr. Kieffer was a very generous man, 

 child-like and unsuspecting in his disposition, and, though he knew the great 

 value of this fruit, he seldom resisted applications for grafts or cuttings, and 

 though hundreds of thousands of dollars have been made by different parties 

 by the sale and distribution of the Kieffer, it is probable that he never made 

 many dollars out of it for himself. Mr. Kieffer's knowledge of gardening 

 was of a very high order ; he knew how to ripen pears, and it is a remark- 

 able fact that no matter what the season or what the crop, Kieffer pears dis- 

 tributed by Mr. Kieffer were always of the highest excellence. I never 

 knew a Kieffer pear to come from Mr. Kieffer that one would not say was of 

 a higher character than almost any pear that he ever ate; but those who 

 know no more of the art of gardening than to put in a tree, and let it mature 

 of itself, without any help at all on the part of the grower, conclude that 

 Kieffer pears are scarcely worth eating. Undoubtedly these pears are of 

 no account in the way of excellence as we usually find them, but in Mr. 

 Kiefier's hands this pear was something to remember with keen pleasure 

 after having once eaten it. 



