FERRY-MORSE SEED CO. 
9 
thousand acres were devoted to seed production. The business continued to 
expand as more varieties of vegetable and flower seeds were grown. 
The health of Mr. C. C. Morse failed in 1898, and his son, Lester L. Morse, 
who had been associated with his father for a number of years, assumed the 
management. He continued to devote the greater part of his time to the improve¬ 
ment of the then-existing strains of vegetable and flower seeds and to the develop¬ 
ment of many new types, notably in lettuce, onions, and carrots, and in sweet 
peas and other flowers. Field notes on these subjects compiled by him are recog¬ 
nized standards of authority, both in the United States and abroad. 
In 1900, Mr. C. C. Morse died, and Lester L. Morse succeeded him as presi¬ 
dent of the company. Up to the year 1905, C. C. Morse & Co. had been exclusively 
seed growers for the general seed trade; but, desiring to expand their operations, 
purchased in 1905 the business of E. J. Bowen, who had recently died. Mr. 
Bowen was a brother of C. C. Bowen of the original Ferry firm and was one of 
the pioneer seedsmen of the Pacific coast. Following this purchase, the head¬ 
quarters of the company were moved from Santa Clara to the premises formerly 
occupied by E. J. Bowen in San Francisco. On April 18,1906 came the earthquake 
and fire which destroyed the major portion of the business district of San Fran¬ 
cisco, including the recently occupied premises of C. C. Morse & Co. For a brief 
period the company again operated from their old headquarters in Santa Clara, 
but on June 1, 1906, just forty-four days after the fire started, the company was 
back in San Francisco in a temporary building, and continued at this location 
until the fall of 1907, when one of the first permanent buildings in the business 
district was available. Later, needing larger quarters, the company occupied its 
present building, at 749 Front Street. 
In 1907, C. C. Morse & Co. purchased the business of the Cox Seed & Plant 
Company, an old, well-established jobbing, commission packet, and retail busi¬ 
ness, and it was through this purchase that the firm entered the commission 
packet business on the Pacific coast, which branch of the business was eventually 
sold to D. M. Ferry & Co.,in 1921. As the seed-growing operations of C. C. Morse 
& Co. expanded, additional acreage became necessary; and after trying several 
localities the company, in 1910, finally centralized their seed-growing operations 
by purchasing the farm at San Juan Bautista and other land in the vicinity. 
A few years later, the Sacramento River Ranch was acquired; then, the Salinas 
property, where most of the California seed-breeding operations are now centered. 
