THE PACKING HOUSE ON THE KELLOGG FARMS— 
Magnitude 
of 
Operations 
The following year, notwithstanding the in- 
creased number of plants grown, thesum returned 
reached $10,000; altogether, it maybe remarked 
in passing, the amount thus returned during the 
last six years foots up quite $50,000. In 1905 
sixty-five acres more were added, malcing the 
total area 225 acres, the largest farm in the 
world by many times devoted exclusively to the 
production of strawberry plants 
Come of the facts and figures relating to the 
farm and its operations may suggest its 
magnitude and the place it occupies in the busi- 
ness world. Notwithstanding the fact that 
Three Rivers is an important industrial city, 
one manufacturing enterprise alone employing 
800 people, the mail of the 
Kellogg Company repie- 
sents 40 per cent of all that 
is handled by the postoffice 
in this city. Last year the amount paid for pos- 
tage stamps was in excess of $8,000, It required 
47,500 pounds of paper to put out the 1906 
issue of "Great Crops of Strawberries," and 
this book (1907) will be issued to the number of 
25,000 copies more — a total of 175,000 copies, 
so great has become the demand for this annual 
publication. The company's mail receipts during 
the months of January, February, March and 
April frequently numbered more than 1,000 
pieces daily, and on Monday, April 9, 1906, the 
record of the farm was broken by the receipt of 
424 cash orders for plants — probably .he great- 
est number ever received in one day by any 
nursery in the country. Our out-going mail 
for a year weighs in excess of 100 tons. 
/^RDERS were received from every state and 
territory in the Union, from every province 
in Canada, from Australasia, Hawaii, Cuba, 
Sixteen 
Thousand 
Customers 
Bermuda, and from many European countries. 
Thenumber of customers in 1906 exceeded sixteen 
thousand. All of these orders had to be filled 
within eight weeks of time 
owing to the extreme varia- 
tions of the weather — from 
cold to hot, from torrential 
rains to extended periods of drought. What 
such a tremendous business means, when 
crowded into so brief a space of time, it would 
be difficult to imagine; one must have the actual 
experience to comprehend it. Of such volume 
is the express business that the two express 
companies having offices in Three Rivers — the 
American and United States — establish each 
season branch offices in the immense Kellogg 
Company packing-house, and each company 
employs two clerks in handling the daily ship- 
ments, and many days entire carloads go by 
express from the farm. One of the illustrations 
herewith shows two of the United States Express 
Co. 's wagons loaded with Kellogg thorough- 
bred plants on the way to the express cars. The 
prospects for increased business in 1907 are 
greater th-"n ever before. As early as June 10, 
1906, orders were being filed for 1907 plants. 
'T'HE foundation for the Kellogg success was 
an idea — the idea that the strawberry is 
susceptible to improvement through breeding 
and selection. Through infinite care and pro- 
tracted observation and study this idea was 
worked out to practical realization. The story 
is a long one — too long for 
this place; but in a word „ 7^.'. 
' ^, ^ ^, , Underlying 
we may say that the work Principle 
done on this farm has proved 
conclusively that there is a distinct correspon- 
dence between plant life and animal life, and 
that characteristics of the piant may be inten- 
2 
