Otto Samuel Herbert Reinecke, an expert on deciduous fruit, was the
son of Johann Samuel Gotlieb Reinecke, accountant, and his wife Christina
Johanna Georgina, born Herbert. He attended the Secondary School in Middelburg,
Transvaal Colony, and passed the matriculation examination of the University of
the Cape of Good Hope in 1907. The next year he was selected by the government
of the Transvaal Colony as one of a small group of matriculants who were to study
agriculture overseas. He was sent to the Ontario Agricultural College
(associated with the University of Toronto) in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where
he obtained the degree Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BSA) in 1912. Upon
his return to South Africa he worked as a horticulturalist at the agricultural
schools at Elsenburg, near Stellenbosch, and Cedara, near Howick,
KwaZulu-Natal. In April 1918 he was appointed as the first professor of
pomology in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Stellenbosch, a
position he held until his retirement in 1961. During this long period he
visited many of the fruit producing countries of the world. He was an excellent
lecturer, also a part-time farmer, and was popular with the farming community.
Reinecke made several significant contributions to the
development of the deciduous fruit industry in the Western Cape and strove to
place it on a scientific basis. Within the first two years of his appointment he had pairs of fruit trees of 400 cultivars planted on the experimental farm of Stellenbosch University, Welgevallen. His research on the pruning of fruit trees,
published as "Die snoei van blaarwisselende vrugtebome" (The pruning of
deciduous fruit trees) in the Annale van
die Universiteit Stellenbosch (Afdeling A, 1928, Vol. 6(4), 31 pp)
established that moderate pruning gives a better yield than hard pruning and
caused a revolution in the pruning of young trees. His studies on the
cross-fertilisation of fruit trees led to his being awarded the degree Doctor
of Science (DSc) by the University of South Africa in 1930, for a thesis
entitled Field and laboratory studies of
the pollination requirements of varieties of deciduous fruit trees grown in
South Africa (Stellenbosch University, College of Agriculture, Science Bulletin No. 90, 1930).
Reinecke also instituted a systematic search for a suitable
yellow clingstone peach variety for canning. This search eventually led to the
identification of a suitable peach tree at Kakamas, along the Orange River, by
one of his former students, A.D. Collins. Material for the propagation of this
tree, which was later named Kakamas, was sent to Reinecke in 1933. The
resulting trees were planted at Elsenburg for further study. The variety proved
well-suited to the climate of the Western Cape, while its fruit was excellent
for canning. Seedlings were distributed to nurserymen in 1938. The Kakamas
peach subsequently became one of the best canning peaches in the world.
Other research by Reinecke was published in "The relation of
seed formation to fruit development of the pear" (South African Journal of Science, 1930, Vol. 27, pp. 303-309), "Dieback
of fruit trees in Western Cape Province" (Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 97, 1931), and "A
semi-evergreen form of Lombardy poplar" (with C.L. Wicht; Journal of the South African Forestry Association, 1942, Vol. 9,
pp. 19-22). He continued his research on fruit trees after his retirement and died while on a work-related visit to Pretoria.
Reinecke was married in Cape Town, on 13 April 1922, to Iris
Kathleen Bam, a teacher, with whom he had a son and two daughters.
