Delightful Cruciferous Maiden from Boston

"The Boston Seedsmen" Parker & Wood -1883 to 1893 and a whole bunch of other guys.

I was getting tired of following leads that were far from home, so I looked into my pile of bits and pieces and found this delightful cruciferous maiden from Boston.  This is a trade card.

 In 1883, Cyrus and William E. Wood bought a half interest in the firm of Parker & Gannett, seed merchants at 49 North Market street, Boston. This firm sold the goods made by the Woods in Arlington, and later the firm name became Parker & Wood. 

Cyrus Wood remained in this business only a year, and William E. Wood bought out Mr. Parker's interest, reorganizing the firm and admitting as partners Edward A. Hatch and Joseph B. Robinson under the firm name of Parker & Wood, as before. 

In 1890 Mr. Robinson sold his interest to his partners, and in August, 1893, Parker & Wood consolidated with Joseph Breck & Son, an old and successful seed house at 51 North Market street, under the name of Joseph Breck & Son Corporation, and Mr. Wood sold his interests to the new company, who immediately converted the two stores into one. 

1908 - Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical

 and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families

 of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 4 

 So then I wondered about Parker & Gannett and found this great trade card with the lawn mowing youngster.


Off topic: Is that a Carpenter Gothic house in the background?  >>>>>>



This is Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, CT., a Carpenter Gothic summer home museum.

Who is Osgood? 

And then, I found more!  These particular seed sellers seemed to jump around a lot creating different combinations.  While I would like to see a simple infographic charting their capitalistic matings, life is too short and I am outta here.

Henry Field - "Putting the Person Into Personality"

You know, I can't find a seed packet for the Field Seed Co. when it was in the earlier company version, before the "& Nursery".  Why can't I?  Ebay doesn't turn them up. Doesn't turn up any for any decade actually.  They must have had packets.

I guess I don't care today.  However,  Ebay did toss up this yardstick cane from the Iowa State Fair!  Much better than a seed packet.

Below is an article on his advertising style and strategy.  It is a great puff piece but I can't see why an advertising magazine would puff Field..

This truck was there, too.

And this!!  I love this facet of the Henry Field's interests.

Actually "Putting the Person Into Personality"

As Illustrated by the Success of an Iowa Seedsman

By CHESLA C. SHERLOCK

1918 - Advertising and Selling

We hear a great deal of "personality" in advertising literature these days. The plea is for personality in all copy, for advertisers realize that personality has a greater influence upon the mind of the buying public than any other quality which may be reflected in the printed page.

And when I am reminded of that craze for personality in advertising matter, I instantly recall Henry Field of Shenandoah, Iowa.

Field is a seedsman who started in business at eight years of age. His passion has been for growing things since his earliest recollection. He handled the farm garden as a mere child and was inspired to put up his first seed packets by the catalog of old Henry Vick.

His first real occupation was as a market gardener. He found that people soon formed the habit of coming to him for the kind of seed that "he used him

self" and before long he was spending the winter months selling seed to his neighbors.

His first catalog was a small fourpage price list which he printed himself at night. He has done his own printing ever since.

He started in the seed business in earnest in 1902 by building a five-hundred-dollar frame building. In 1913 his business amounted to $170,973 and in 1918 it reached $1,115,962.14.

His business has grown with leaps and bounds since the first year. This hasn't been accidental or because he did not face keen competition. There are plenty of good seed companies in the field and most of them are thoroughly reliable. Seed men sell seed today that grows. They have to do that, if they are to survive.

Henry Field grows his own seed and he is a particular fellow about it. He wants things right and he sees to it that they are right. But most of his competitors are shrewd enough to insist upon the same quality in their goods.

If you want to know why Henry Field has succeeded in building up a million dollar business in a little country town, you have only to read his advertising literature to know the reason. Henry Field has the knack of getting personality into his copy.

In the first place, he has personality. He is different. He has that unique quality of getting under the hide of the average fellow he deals with and in arousing the latter's confidence. He has the sales magnetism, if you please.

His catalog is nothing but a long distance mirror of himself. He writes every word of it, and even his description of the most uninteresting farm or garden seed is live and palpitating under his homely phrases.

He is not afraid to say his say in plain, unvarnished language and if he thinks a seed is poor or a certain crop a failure, he says so, even when offering the seed for sale.

On the very first page of his catalog, Henry Field wins his customers by taking them into his confidence. He tells them about his business, how it started and how he worked those first few years. It is a story close to the soil, and it has a universal appeal to his trade. He makes the reader feel that he is a plain, hard-working fellow like himself who wants to be honest before anything else, and who lives up to the Golden Rule. In other words,Henry Field is still a farmer, a market-gardener and nothing else. He sells seeds because people want his seed.

In another place, he says: "I hope you'll like the catalog. It's a sort of home-made affair and not specially artistic, but I have tried to make it helpful and honest and entertaining. And we have done all the work on it ourselves from start to finish.

Henry Field's Book of a Thousand Gardens - 1912

Henry Field had the knack for appealing to the people who took their gardening seriously!  This book is the results of an essay contest, the subject being your garden's results... ...using Henry Field seeds of course! 

Reading testimonials is addictive, plus this book gives you a peek into many peoples' lives in 1912.   

The Book of a Thousand Gardens: Being the True Accounts of the Trials and Tribulations and Successes in a Dry Year of Something Less Than a Thousand Gardens in Many States and Climates, as Told in a Bunch of Letters to Henry Field by His Loyal Friends - His Customers 

Mrs. Field's Pigs and Other Stuff

I wonder what the vines were growing up the building below.

Below: No clue what's happening here!! Is that a biplane on the Field Seed float?

The fire proof seed house was constructed in 1907, I think.  I read somewhere that because of the financial crisis in the country, the Panic of 1907, Field had to pay his construction crews in silver coin.

Seed Radio! Really! - KFNF and KMA

Just as J. L. Childs realized that mass marketing through large catalog mailings was the way to grow in the late 1800s, some seedsmen of the early 20th century saw radio as a great opportunity to talk directly to their customers.  It seems, also, these men really fell in love with radio in general. 

The slogan of the call letters of Henry Field's radio station was assigned, KFNF, was "Keep Friendly, Never Frown".

"In 1924, he became a pioneer in broadcast radio by building a station (KFNF) on top of his seedhouse.  The programming consisted of country entertainment, information and of course, informing folks about his wares.  To put this into context, this use of the brand new technology of broadcast radio put Field on the cutting edge and one of less than 300 radio stations operating in the country at the time." from SaveSeeds.org

The "Shenandoah Five" radio was made for Henry Field!

From the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center site: 

Earl E. May founded his company in 1919 in the small southwest Iowa town of Shenandoah.  He was a "natural born” salesman and quickly attracted a number of capable individuals to work with him in building a successful mail-order and retail seed and nursery business.  Though he died in 1946, his legendary expertise lives on today within the garden centers which bear his name.

 In the early 1920's, Earl May was able to foresee the great opportunity of talking to thousands of people by a new means of communication called radio.  He traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to broadcast his program at WOAW.  After two years he decided to build his own radio station in Shenandoah.  In 1925, KMA was opened, at first as a department of the nursery company.  It was one of the most popular stations in the country, broadcasting homespun farming and gardening talks. 

Mr. May won the "Radio Digest" coveted gold cup in 1926, being voted the World's Most Popular Radio Announcer by over 452,000 people throughout the United States.  The Mayfair Auditorium, home of KMA, was visited by thousands of listeners who wanted to meet the legend, and see the live broadcasts. 

As Earl May wrote in one of his spring catalogs, "Be sure to come - bring your whole family. Remember, we do not put on any style here . . . if you are in your working clothes and decide to come, why come ahead, because you’ll find me here in my working clothes, too. Come as soon as you can for I promise you will have a good time and that you will be glad you made the trip."

These seedsmen are certainly extroverts!!  Here is The Earl E. May Song.  Poor image but that's what I could find.

The  first line goes -

	If there's any thing you need from clothing on to seed just send your orders down from city farm or town.
and the refrain is	This is K.M.A. at Shenandoah it's Earl E. May you're list'ning to--All we do is try to serve you people of the U.S.A. If you live north, south, east or west, Earl E. May can serve you best. This is K.M.A. at Shenandoah, it's Earl E.May you're list'ning to.

The following from University of Iowa Libraries; Rita Benton Music Library.

 Links:

• From the Radio Historian info on "Farmer Radio"...great site!

Seed Sayings