Louis Boehmer
| Louis Boehmer | |
|---|---|
Louis Boehmer
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| Born |
May 30, 1843 Lüneburg, Lower Saxony |
| Died | July 29, 1896 (aged 53) Lüneburg, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Agronomist |
Louis Boehmer (30 May 1843 - 29 July 1896) was an ethnic German-American agronomist and government advisor in Meiji period Japan who later worked as a success entrepreneur in Yokohama.
Louis Boehmer was born in Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. He apprenticed as a gardener, and received an appointment to tend the royal gardens of the Kingdom of Hannover. However, after the Franco-Prussian War of 1867, he immigrated to America and become a successful gardener in Rochester, New York. In January 1871, when Kuroda Kiyotaka was in the United States hiring foreign advisors for his Hokkaidō Colonization Office, Boehmer was recommended as a horticulturist by a mutual friend of Horace Capron.
Boehmer arrived in Yokohama, Japan on March 23, 1872 and was initially placed in charge of an experimental farm in Aoyama, Tokyo where he raised carrots, potatoes, asparagus, as well as wheat, barley and soybeans. He also planted apple, cherry, peach and pear fruit trees as well as grapes, and introduced new varieties of livestock.
With the end of the Boshin War, the Japanese government redoubled its efforts to settle Hokkaidō, especially with displaced former samurai from pro-Tokugawa shogunate domains. Boehler arrived in Hakodate on May 19, 1874 and spent the next five months travelling around the island exploring sites for experimental government farms. While in Saru District, he discovered the local Ainu tribe growing hops, which when combined with locally-grown barley enabled him to recommend to Horace Capon at the nearby Sapporo Agricultural College that a brewery be established. The new operation was run by Edwin Dun and exists to this date under the name of Sapporo Breweries. Boehler transferred to Sapporo in 1876, where he assisted Edwin Dun for several years.
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