VII. 



cellar and first floor of No. 205 Woodward Avenue ; also, occupy three floors 

 100 feet deep, over iSg Woodward Avenue. They also have a bridge extending 

 across the alley to the Preston Block, where they occupy nine rooms. They 

 also use exclusively for storage, their three story seed house on Grand River 

 Avenue, making a total of 30 different appartments, most of which are 100 feet 

 deep, and many of which have an exti-a floor suspended between the ceiling and 

 the regular floor, which nearly doubles their capacity. This immense quantity 

 of room would seem sufficient to store seeds enough to supply the world, but the 

 firm arrange to have only a portion of their crops and importations delivered at 

 one time, on account of their total inability to store them. 



The establishment is divided into many departments, each one independ- 

 ent, controlled by its own foreman, and occupied by its own class of employo.-, 

 men, boys or girls. To one passing through these departments, no doubt longer 

 remains as to the immense extent of the business. Every person in the estab- 

 lishment, from the partnei-s to the youngest employe, is constantly busy. With 

 all the great force employed, and the admirable system with which affairs are 

 managed, the most constant industry and activity are required to meet the 

 demands of the trade, and the departments are like the hives of busy bees, 

 where idleness, or an opportunity for idleness, is hardly known. 



THE PRINTING DEPARTMENT. 



As we entered the printing department and observed the long line of presses 

 on one side of the room, busy adding to the millions of impressions required 

 annually, and a score of girls counting and packing away the paper bags ; and in 

 another part of the room noticed a man busily engaged cutting paper with a 

 ponderous machine, we almost imagined ourselves in a printing and publishing 

 house, instead of a seed store. The foreman of this departm^ent informed us 

 that during the busy season, a duplicate set of hands are employed, and that the 

 presses are kept running day and night, in order to meet the requirements of the 

 immense trade. 



Their paper is mostly manufactured for them, as they require a definite 

 color and size, and, further, save the dealer's profit by purchasing of the manu- 

 facturers. This rule they strictly follow throughout their entire business, dis- 

 carding middle men, and purchasing directly of the producers. The paper they 

 use annually is a. large item, and they seldom order less than ten tons of the 

 leading lines at once. Often four times that quantity is being made for them at 

 one time. 



THE FLO^WER SEED DEPARTMENT 

 Deserves especial attention. As this is an age of culture and refinement, the 

 tendency is to admire the beautiful, in whatever form it may be found ; and but 

 few forms of beauty have more devotees, especially among the ladies, than 

 choice flowers. Messrs. Ferry & Co. are alive to this fact, and are supplying 

 this demand. Their selections embrace the choicest the world affords. They 

 supply themselves mainly from the most celebrated florests of Europe, and where 

 two qualities of the same variety of seed are offered, they invariably take the 

 best at whatever cost. They showed us some choice varieties from Prussia, 

 which cost here, including duties, at the rate of over $8,000 per pound. They 

 have about 1,000 varieties, including all new ones of known merit. In addition 



