Rudolph Hass
| Rudolph Hass | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Rudolph Gustav Hass June 5, 1892 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Died | October 24, 1952 (aged 60) Fallbrook, California |
| Occupation | Mail carrier |
| Known for | Hass avocado |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Schuette (1899-1997) |
| Children | 5 |
Rudolph Gustav Hass was the developer of the Hass avocado, the source of 95% of avocados grown commercially today.
Rudolph Gustav Hass was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 5, 1892 to Henry C. Hass and Alma F. (Zergman) Hass. Known as Rudie, Hass quit school after finishing 10th grade at age 15 and went to work. He tried to enlist in the Army during World War I, but they rejected him due to a congenital heart murmur.
Hass met Elizabeth Schuette on 7/4/1918 at a 4th of July church picnic. He was involved in a mission working with children on weekends and asked Elizabeth if she could play the piano for his ministry at the mission. She agreed and thus their courtship began. They were married about a year later on 8/2/1919 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family moved to Pasadena, California in 1923.
Hass got a job as a door-to-door salesman in 1923, first selling "Real Silk Hose" (socks and ties for men), then selling Maytag washing machines. In 1925 Hass got a job with the Pasadena Post Office making 25 cents per hour. That was before mail truck routes, so Hass carried the heavy mail sack every day on his route for ten years until he was given a car route due to his failing heart.
After reading a magazine article illustrating an avocado tree with dollar bills hanging from it in 1925, Hass used all the money he had, plus a loan from his sister, Ida Hass, to buy a small acre and a half avocado grove at 430 West Road La Habra Heights, California. The trees were old Fuerte avocados with 2 or 3 Lyon as well as a few Pueblas and Nabals. The Fuerte was the best avocado available at that time, but Hass could not afford to buy more trees, so he decided to cut down many of the old trees and have them grafted over to Fuerte with new bud wood.
Hass hired a professional grafter named Mr. Caulkins, who advised Mr. Hass to buy avocado seeds from a nursery owned by Mr. Rideout and grow his own seedlings and then have them grafted to the Fuerte variety. Hass agreed and followed his advice. He planted the rest of the grove on 12-foot (3.7 m) centers with three seeds in each hole. Cuttings from existing Fuerte trees were grafted onto the strongest of the three newly planted trees from each hole. All but three of the grafts 'took' and new Fuerte trees grew out of the new seedlings. Mr. Caulkins re-grafted those three trees. Then he re-grafted the one tree that had rejected the second graft. Again it did not take. Hass was ready to give up and asked Mr. Caulkins to chop it down, but he told him it was a good strong tree, and advised Hass to "just leave it alone and see what happens." So Hass did.
Mr. Hass was not a botanist like Luther Burbank (1849 - 1926) who purposely cross pollinated plants to produce over 800 better varieties. The seed that produced the Hass Avocado had already been cross pollinated by nature before Mr Rideout sold it, along with a hundred other seeds, to Mr. Hass.
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