14 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Now a word in regard to pears, which fruit I take to he the next in im- 
portance in the history of pomology, so far as Philadelphia is concerned. In 
olden times nearly all the pears of any value were introduced here from the 
old world. Of the nurserymen who were conspicuous for their importations 
in the early days I remember, in my own time, Mr. Buist, John Sherwood and 
Colonel Carr. The latter succeeded to the management of the Bartram Gar- 
dens, he having married the granddaughter of John Bartram, the founder. 
These men imported continually pears, old and new, as they appeared in the 
old world; but they had 'their troubles in those days as we have ours now. 
The trees grafted on stems four or five feet from the ground, came here in 
log-like bales, wrapped up in Russian matting, as the bast matting was 
called at that time; and frequently they were in very bad condition from the 
ravages made by the rats in the hold of the ship. Sometimes little would be 
left but saw dust. There was apparently no remedy for the annoyance. I 
met one of those gentlemen, Mr. John Sherwood, one day, when he was in 
great tribulation because the pear trees he was importing from France had 
been eaten up by rats. He went to the agent of the shipping house to inquire 
what remedy he had. “Well,” the official replied, “I believe we had a cat on 
board.” “A cat on board— what has that to do with it,” Mr. Sherwood asked. 
He thought the agent was playing a joke upon him. He went to another 
.agent and the same answer was made, “Well, I think we had a cat on 
board.” He then went to an attorney to see if he could not get some legal 
redress, and he w r as asked, “Do you know if they had a cat on board?”' 
Upon further investigation he found that the law was that if the shipping 
company kept a cat on board their ship, no matter what destruction the rats 
and mice did, the company were not responsible for the damage done. 
Although we have our troubles in regard to insects, I believe we have none 
from rats. 
I have here a brief list of the different varieties of fruits for which, I think, 
Philadelphia may claim credit as the place in which they were first grown. 
When I speak of Philadelphia I wish to be understood as embracing also a cir- 
cuit of about twenty or twenty-five miles outside of the city. Perhaps the 
area ought to be more extended, as there were many prominent nurserymen 
residing beyond that limit, w^ho did much, in the early part of this century, 
to promote progress in horticulture in Philadelphia. I might name, as one 
of those to whom I refer, the father of our ex-President, Mr. Berckmans, 
whom I remember well— a gentleman of fine presence and great intelligence, 
who used to come down to us, with his fruits, from Plainfield, N. J., in order 
to help Philadelphia pomology along. Without wishing to detract at all from 
the merits of our friend here, I may say that perhaps we had a right to 
expect from him the great knowledge and enthusiasm he has shown for pomol- 
ogy, considering the father he had before him. There was no more enthusi- 
astic pomologist or finer gentleman than Mr. L. E. Berckmans; and he was 
one of those whose names must not be forgotten in the history of Philadelphia 
pomology. 
Referring to the list of which I have spoken I find that, as to grapes, the 
number of new varieties for which w'e have credit is comparatively small — 
about fifteen. Of apples we can name thirty-eight; peaches, thirteen; plums, 
five; blackberries, two; raspberries, thirteen. Of pears there are twenty-five. 
I will read the list of these as characteristic of what I claim for Philadelphia. 
They are as follows: 
