Seckel

Seukel.

Seckle. Syckle. New York Red Cheek. Sickel. Red-Cheeked Seckel. Shakespeare.

We do not hesitate to pronounce this American Pear the richest and most exquisitely flavored variety known. In its highly concentrated, spicy, and honeyed flavor it is not surpassed, nor indeed equalled, by any European variety. When we add to this, that the tree is the healthiest and hardiest of all pear-trees, forming a fine, compact, symmetrical head, and bearing regular and abundant crops in clusters at the ends of the branches, it is easy to see that we consider no garden complete without it. Indeed we think it indispensable in the smallest garden.

The stout, short-jointed, olive-brown colored wood distinguishes this variety, as well as the peculiar reddish brown color of the fruit. The soil should receive a top-dressing of manure frequently, when the size of the Pear is an object. The Seckel Pear originated on the farm of Mr. Seckel, about four miles from Philadelphia.* It was sent to Europe by the late Dr. Hosack, in 1819, and the fruit was pronounced by the London Horticultural Society exceeding in flavor the richest of their autumn Pears.

Fruit small, regularly formed, obovate. Skin brownish green at first, becoming dull yellowish brown, with a lively russet red cheek. Stalk half to three-fourths of an inch long, slightly curved, and set in a trifling depression. Calyx small, and placed in a basin scarcely at all sunk. Flesh whitish, buttery, very juicy and melting, with a peculiarly rich spicy flavor and aroma. It ripens gradually in the house from the end of August to the last of October.

• The precise origin of the Seckel Pear is unknown. The first pomologists of Europe have pronounced that it is entirely distinct from any European variety, and its affinity to the Rousselet, a well-known German Pear, leads to the supposition that the seeds of the latter Pear, having been brought here by some of the Germans settling near Philadelphia, by chance produced this superb seedling. However this may be, the following account may be relied on as authentic, it having been related by the late venerable Bishop White, whose tenacity of memory is well known. About the beginning of the last century, there was a well-known sportsman and cattle-dealer in Philadelphia, who was familiarly known as "Dutch Jacob." Dutch Jacob, early in the autumn, on returning from his shooting excursions, was often noticed coming into the city eating pears of an unusually delicious flavor, the secret of which, however, he would never reveal. At length he was tracked to the spot, and the original tree was discovered growing in a retired spot near the Delaware. The property afterwards passed into the hands of the Holland Land Company, who disposed of it in parcels, and the ground upon which the pear-tree stood, a fine strip of woodland, became the farm of Mr. Seckel. The fruit was soon brought into notice, and is added to the vast estate of the late S. W. Roberts, Esq. The original tree (a few years ago), vigorous and fruitful. Specimens were lately exhibited at the annual show of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)

SECKEL

1. Prince Pom. Man. 1:139. 1831. 2. Kenrick Am. Orch. 183. 1832. 3. Gard. Chron. 708, fig. 1842. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 415, fig. 188. 1845. 5. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 6. Hovey Fr. Am. 2:33, Pl. 1851. 7. Mag. Hort. 19:457, fig. 94. 1853. 8. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 1, 29, fig. 13. 1866-73. 9. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:656, figs. 1869. 10. Guide Prat. 63, 303. 1876.

Seckle. 11. Coxe Cult. Fr. Trees 189, fig. 25. 1817. 12. Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc. 3:256, Pl. 9. 1820. 13. Pom. Mag. 2:72, Pl. 1829. 14. Hort. Reg. (Eng.) 1:488. 1833. 15. Pom. France 2: No. 64, Pl. 64. 1864. 16. Jour. Hort. 3rd Ser. 4:128. 1882. 17. Hogg Fruit Man. 644. 1884. 18. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fr. 197. 1920.

Seckel is an American pear distinct in type from any European variety. Among the several hundred pears that are grown on this side of the Atlantic, Seckel stands almost alone in vigor of tree, productiveness, and immunity to blight, and is equalled by no other variety in high quality of fruit. If the fruits were larger, Seckel would challenge the world as a pear for the markets as it now does as a pear for the home orchard. After Bartlett and the disreputable Kieffer, it is now more grown than any other variety in America, everywhere being used as the standard for excellence. The fruits are small, not highly colored, but attractive because clean and trim in contour. But it is the flesh-characters that give the fruits their high standing. The flesh is melting, juicy, perfumed and most exquisitely and delicately flavored, with the curious character of having much of its spicy, aromatic flavor in the skin, which should never be discarded in eating. The reddish-brown color of the fruit is another distinguishing character of Seckel. Unlike most other dessert pears, the fruits of this one are excellent for culinary purposes. Still another distinctive character is that the fruits do not lose much in quality by ripening on the tree. Besides being nearly iron-clad in resistance to blight and very productive, the trees are almost as hardy as those of any other pear, and are remarkable for their large, low, compact, broadly pyramidal tops. The tree is further distinguished by its short-jointed, stout, olive-colored wood, and its habit of bearing fruits in clusters on the ends of the branches. The trees do best in fertile soils which must not be a heavy clay. Its blossoms are markedly self-fertile. There are several faults of fruit and tree. The fruits are small and do not keep after maturity; it costs twice as much to pick them as it does the large-fruited Bartlett; fruit and foliage are susceptible to scab; the pears are too small for commercial canning; and the trees are late in coming in bearing. With these several faults, however, Seckel is usually a profitable commercial variety as a well-grown crop almost always commands a fancy price. For the home orchard, Seckel has no rival in any part of North America where European varieties are grown.

Toward the close of the eighteenth century, there lived in Philadelphia a well-known sportsman and cattle dealer known as "Dutch Jacob." Every autumn, upon returning from shooting excursions, Dutch Jacob distributed among his neighbors pears of exceedingly delicious flavor. The place of their growth he kept secret. In time, a tract of land south of Philadelphia was disposed of in parcels, and Dutch Jacob secured the ground on which his favorite pear tree stood, a neck of land near the Delaware river. Shortly afterwards this land became the property of a Mr. Seckel, who gave the pear his name and introduced it. Later, the property was added to the estate of Stephen Girard, and the original tree long remained vigorous and fruitful. The new variety was soon widely disseminated and everywhere became popular. As early as 1819, Dr. Hossack of New York sent trees of the variety to the London Horticultural Society, whence it was later distributed in England. There is much difference of opinion as to the spelling of the name of this pear. Coxe, who lived in Philadelphia and probably knew the introducer of the pear, writing in 1817, spelled the name Seckle. English pomologists have followed Coxe. Nearly all of Coxe's contemporaries, however, spelled it Seckel, the spelling now in common use. At the first meeting of the American Pomological Society, held in 1848, Seckel was recommended for general cultivation and the variety has ever held its place among the pears recommended by the Society.

Tree large and very vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive, long-lived; trunk very stocky; branches thick, reddish-brown mingled with dull gray scarf-skin, covered with small lenticels; branchlets thick, long, dark reddish-brown, dull, smooth, glabrous, with small, slightly raised lenticels.

Leaf-buds small, short, obtuse or pointed, appressed; leaf-scars prominent. Leaves 2½ in. long, 1⅝ in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole ½ in. long; stipules very long when present. Flower-buds small, short, conical, free; flowers 1⅛ in. across, in dense clusters, 7 or 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels ¾ in. long, slender, lightly pubescent, light green, slightly streaked with red.

Fruit ripe in October; small, 2⅝ in. long, 2 in. wide, uniform in size and shape, obovate, symmetrical; stem ¾ in. long, short, thick, often curved; cavity obtuse, with a very shallow, narrow depression, symmetrical; calyx small, partly open; lobes separated at the base, short, variable in width, acute; basin very shallow and narrow, strongly obtuse, symmetrical; skin smooth, dull; color yellowish-brown, lightly marked with pale russet and often with a lively russet-red cheek; dots numerous, very small, russet or grayish; flesh white, with a faint tinge of yellow, slightly granular, melting, buttery, very juicy; sweet, with an exceedingly rich, aromatic, spicy flavor; quality very good to best. Core small, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, conical; seeds small, short, not very plump, obtuse.

— U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York (1921)

THE SECKEL PEAR. Seckel. Coxe's View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, p. 189, pl. 25.

Sycle, Red Cheeked Seckle, } According to Pomological Magazine. New York Red Cheek, } Seckle, of many authors and writers. Shakspeare, of some French Collections.

The encomiums bestowed upon this — undoubtedly as regards richness of flavor — best of all pears, have been so numerous and so universal, both at home and abroad, that it would be quite superfluous to recapitulate them. The late Dr. Hossack, of New York, sent trees of the Seckel to the London Horticultural Society in 1819, and, in 1820, the fruit was exhibited from the garden of Mr. Braddick, which was highly extolled for its exquisitely perfumed and luscious qualities, and it at once became a most popular and extensively cultivated variety. To our own cultivators it has been a familiar pear since first described by Mr. Coxe, in his valuable work published in 1817, and though comparatively so old a variety, it is to this day more sought after than any other pear, unless we except the Bartlett, and is always one of the sorts planted in the very smallest collection. If it had the size of the Bartlett, or, indeed, was a moderately large pear, it would challenge — as it does now in the estimation of many — the world for a rival.

The Seckel is so named after the late Mr. Seckel, of Philadelphia, on whose estate, near that city, the original tree was growing when Mr. Coxe wrote his account of it. It is undoubtedly an accidental seedling, believed to have sprung from a kernel of the Rousselet de Rheims, partaking, as it does, of the high aroma of that variety, and greatly resembling it in the wood, leaves, habit, &c. Its great excellence soon became known to cultivators of the pear, and for many years it was the only American variety considered worth growing. With the White Doyenne or Butter pear of Philadelphia, it was, until recently, the only sort cultivated, to any extent, for the supply of the market of that city : and notwithstanding the introduction of so many fine pears, well grown specimens still command as high a price as any other variety of its season. The Seckel is a very slow grower, making short stocky wood, and forming, at mature age, only a low, compact, and broadly-pyramidal tree. It is very tardy in coming into bearing, and does not succeed very well upon the quince.

SECKEL PEAR. Tree. — Vigorous, upright, erect, compact in its habit, and forming a regular-shaped and fine head ; annual shoots very short, stout, and blunt at the ends. Wood. — Dark brownish olive, dotted with minute grayish specks, short-jointed ; old wood, grayish olive ; buds, small, short, broad, erect, and flattened : Flower-buds, medium size, bluntly ovate. Leaves. — Medium size, ovate, nearly flat, smooth, thick, dark green, finely and rather sharply serrated ; petioles, rather short, about one inch in length, moderately stout. Flowers. — Small, disposed in compact clusters; petals, tinged with rose, obovate, cupped. Fruit. — Small to medium, about two and a half inches long, and two and a quarter in diameter : Form, roundish obovate, largest in the middle, narrowing to each end, with a small crown, and somewhat obtuse at the stem : Skin, nearly smooth, of a clear light golden russet when mature, with a ruddy cheek on the sunny side, and rather thickly dotted with small grayish specks : Stem, short, about half an inch long, moderately stout, and inserted in a very small contracted cavity, highest on one side : Eye, partially closed, and set nearly even with the surface ; segments of the calyx, short, stiff, incurved, projecting: Flesh, yellowish white, fine, melting, and exceedingly juicy : Flavor, sugary, rich, and luscious, with a peculiar, spicy, aromatic perfume : Core, medium size : Seeds, small, broadly ovate.

Ripe in September, and keeps three or four weeks.

— C.M. Hovey, The Fruits of America (1852)

Seckel. Sickle, New York Red Cheek, Sycle. Red-cheeked Seckel,

The original tree of this variety, according to Dr. Brinckle, stands in Passyunk township, on the Delaware river, about three and a half miles from Philadelphia. No one variety has become so generally known in this country as the Seckel, and in our Southern and Middle States, no one variety deserves so extended culture. North, it should, when possible, be planted in warm, rich, sandy loam, and sheltered situations. The tree is of slow growth; wood, short-jointed, stout, forming a round head, and of only medium size on the pear stock, and well suited to garden planting.

Fruit, small, (our drawing too small for a fair average), rounded, obtuse pyriform; color, brownish green at first, becoming yellowish brown, with a lively red russet cheek; stem, short, slightly curved, set in a very slight depression; calyx, small, open; basin, shallow; core, small; seeds, broad, ovate; flesh, yellowish white, juicy, buttery, spicy, aromatic, sweet. September and October.

— F.R. Elliott, The Western Fruit Book (1865)

Seckel.* Small, obovate, sometimes obscurely conic-pyriform, regular; skin brownish green, becoming rich yellowish brown, with a deep brownish-red cheek; stalk one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, cavity and basin small; flesh very fine-grained, sweet, very juicy, melting, buttery, the richest and highest flavored pear known. Although of slow growth and small size, like the Green Gage among plums, it is regarded as the standard of excellence. Its high musky perfume is not, however, agreeable to all. Early mid-autumn. Shoots stout, short, ascending; tree very hardy. Needs rich cultivation. Origin, near Philadelphia, Pa., and succeeds well throughout the Northern, Middle, and Western States, and is remarkably free from the blight.

— John J. Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)

Oct.; large; small; very rich; not any color. The perfect Seckel. Fairly medium; very good flavor. Found in a good tree University, so complete the best little known of all pears; perfection itself. Found in a good tree of Boston.

— George Bunyard & Co., George Bunyard Catalog of Fruit Trees (1914) (1914)