232 



HORTICULTURE. 



August 14, 1909 



opinion of these fundamental char- 

 acteristics. But he has certainly de- 

 veloped in other ways as success came 

 to him, after the initial heart brealv- 

 ing struggle of the first five years. 

 He has developed confidence in him- 

 self. He has developed in enterprise. 

 He has dropped some of his timidity 

 and in short, is rising magnificently 

 to his opportunities. When I speak 

 of Henry F. Michell I speak also of his 

 business. He and it are one. He 

 sticlis to it day and night the year 

 round and dominates everything. He 

 has able managers and lieutenants 

 around him now, and a large force of 

 employees; has every department well 

 systematized; but nevertheless he 

 works today just as long and as hard as 

 he did twenty years ago. Mr. Michell is 

 a native of Switzerland, and came to 

 this country with his parents at the 

 age of nine. He got his schooling and 

 early business training in Philadelphia, 

 and in thought and feeling is typically 

 of the City of Brotherly Love. In 1890 

 his brother Fred, was admitted to 



Henrv F. Michell 



partnership in the firm, and in 1905 

 the firm became a corporation — most 

 of the stock (if not all) being in the 

 Michell family. Two years ago the 

 Tower Hall property at 5th and Mar- 

 ket street was purchased at a price 

 said to be in the neighborhood of 

 $150,000, (and considered a great bar- 

 gain at that figure) and a second store, 

 auxiliary to their lOlS Market street 

 store, opened there last tall. Another 

 recent enterprise was the purchase of 

 twenty acres of fine land near 

 Andalusia station, where modern trial 

 grounds have been established. This 

 will be of great benefit in the future 

 development of the business. If any 

 special branch of the seed business 

 were to be singled out as one in which 

 the Michell firm excels, it is in the 

 florists' business. Florists are exact- 

 ing. They demand the best. Their 

 bread and butter depends on that. The 

 best flower seeds; the best forcing 

 bulbs. Nothing else will do. The 

 initial price of an ounce of flower seeds 

 or a thousand bulbs is a small matter 

 when the final results are figured up. 

 Mr. Michell has always been 

 thoroughly alive to this fact, and has 



ever striven to give quality first place — 

 and the fact that the firm does one of 

 the largest businesses in the country 

 among the fiorisls is ample vindication 

 of the wisdom of this policy. Their 

 local or counter trade among the pri- 

 vate gardeners and suburban residents 

 is also very large. It is an inspiring 

 sight to see the mob of eager custom- 

 ers, six and eight deep, at the counters 

 during the busy seasons in spring and 

 fall. The public parks in this and 

 many other cities are annually sup- 

 plied with bulbs and seeds by this firm. 

 Everything for the farm, garden or 

 orchard can be found here. There are 

 perhaps not more than a .dozen firms 

 in the whole United States that can 

 show equal quality, quantity and va- 

 riety. 



W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO.— This 



business was establisheil in 1876, 

 but for some years previous to that 

 Mr. Burpee had been interested in 

 the sale of thoroughbred stock. He 

 was also well known to the farming 

 public from having been a regular cor 

 respondent of a number of agricul- 

 tural papers, but notwithstanding this 

 advertising and prestige — progress in 

 the seed business was slow at first. 

 He tells an interesting story of these 

 early struggles: — "The first year's 

 business showed a net loss of $3,500, 

 without allowance either for interest 

 or personal salary. The second year's 

 business barely paid expenses, while 

 the third year showed only a profit of 

 $2,700." Since then, however, with the 

 exception of some years of severe ag- 

 ricultural depression, the business has 

 grown steadily until it is now the 

 largest of its kind in the world, a 

 success based primarily on three fun- 

 damental conditions: (1) originality. 

 (2) thoroughness, and (3) advertising. 

 Mr. Burpee early showed his original- 

 ity by offering collections of seeds 

 at popular prices through the eouniry 

 and suburban papers — a thing at tha^ 

 time unheard of in the seed business — 

 and by which he laid the foundation of 

 his mailing list. He showed originality 

 also in the writing and illustrating of 

 his catalogues and price lists. These 

 were thoroughly fresh and original, and 

 caught the popular fancy amazing- 

 ly. . The second important ingredien'. 

 in the above recipe — thoroughness — 

 he showed by an infinite capacity for 

 taking pains with everything he did — 

 a tireless energy in following up every 

 hint or suggestion for improvement 

 either in the production or in the dis- 

 tribution of farm and garden seeds. 

 Burpee was always listening. He was 

 very 'democratic. His manner was al- 

 ways frank, engaging, confidential. 

 Few ever left his office without a 

 pleasant feeling on his mind for Cur- 

 pee; and few ever got away without 

 Burpee having gleaned some va'uable 

 item of out of the way experience 

 from them. Another evidence of 

 this thoroughness is the trial grounds 

 at Fordhook. These are of course 

 of inestimable value not only in 

 showing the purity of stock and 

 fidelity to type, but also, what is of 

 equal importance, in giving oppor- 

 tunity for careful comparisons of pres- 

 ent commercial varieties and of 

 promising claimants on probation. 

 These claimants come from all parts 

 of the world — some of them are vol- 

 untary, but most of them are sent for. 

 Maybe they already had a fine char- 



acter given them in some far away 

 region. What a splendid school this is 

 for keeping the employees as well as 

 the management up to the mark in 

 their knowledge of stocks, with va- 

 rieties constantly changing from year 

 to year, and what a beneficent in- 

 fluence this hunting and sifting and 

 judging is for the farmers and gar- 

 deners everywhere. As for advertis- 

 ing — ingredient No. 3 — little need be 

 said, as Mr. Burpee is well known as 

 a brilliant and liberal advertiser. He 

 has this to say about that terrible bogey 

 of the beginner in advertising — Direct 

 Results: — "We do not expect a direct 

 profit from newspaper advertising. 

 Our records, over a period of years, 

 show that each answer costs from 25 

 to 27 cents. Practically we give away 

 the seeds we advertise; but are wil- 

 ling to do so in order to secure 

 thorough trials. An important factor 

 is the moral infiuence which adver- 

 tising exerts. If our advertisements 

 did not appear in the leading papers 

 some of our customers would not be 

 reminded that they had received our 



W. ATLtE Burpee 



Farm Annua! which may have been 

 laid aside and forgotten. Advertising 

 is as necessary an annual expenditure 

 as the payment of taxes or rent." Mr. 

 Burpee thinks that the method of 

 charging up advertising all to expense 

 account is unfair, as at least half of it 

 might reasonably be considered an in- 

 vestment for the years to come, and 

 charged up to investment account. 

 After thirty-three years of strenuous 

 work in the seed business, Mr. Buipee 

 shows no signs of letting up, person- 

 ally, but is still at it, as enthusias- 

 tically as ever. This summer he has 

 been North to Canada, and the North- 

 west, among the growing seed crops; 

 through the Western states as far as 

 the Pacific; down South and all 

 through the Gulf states — and at this 

 writing, is traveling in Europe inspect- , 

 ing crops and visiting flower shows — 

 with eyes and ears alert for anything 

 good. He has had an enormous in- 

 fluence on the horticultural and agri- 

 cultural interests — perhaps as much 

 as any one man now living and in the 

 prime of life, and Uncle Sam is proud 

 of him. Business is more than a busi- 

 ness to him. It is a profession — a 

 passion! 



