OUR AIMS, OUR WORK 
AND OUR RESULTS. 
By David R. Coker 
THE main purpose for which Coker’s Pedigreed 
1 Seed Company was organized and is operated is 
the improvement of Southern agriculture. During 
several intervals, one of six years’ duration, we sus¬ 
tained heavy losses but went steadily along without 
sacrificing our scientific or social ideals. Every¬ 
thing seems now to indicate that we are so firmly 
established with the scientific world and in the con¬ 
fidence of our very large line of customers that 
we will be able to continually broaden our work 
and, from year to year, make it more and more 
useful for the upbuilding of the South. 
Plant breeding and other scientific experimenta¬ 
tion covering a very wide field, are necessarily inci¬ 
dent to our work. Through them we are constantly 
discovering and proving the superior value of new 
plant families which produce high yields and better 
quality and which, therefore, add profits and com¬ 
fort to the farmers’ operations. Our experimental 
work also enables us to discover better and more 
economical methods of soil management, fertiliza¬ 
tion, cultivation and the preparation and handling 
of crops. 
What we learn from our scientific operations is 
the property of our customers for their asking. 
Our organization is now regarded by many of the 
scientists and educators of the south as an educa¬ 
tional institution which is contributing very 
materially to the knowledge and practical results 
of agriculture. We wish all of our customers to 
use us in this capacity. We are organized to take 
care of many thousands of visitors each season, 
show them through our scientific breeding and 
experimental work and discuss their agricultural 
problems with them. We are far from knowing 
all that is to be learned about agriculture, but we 
have learned some interesting and valuable things 
which will aid the farmers of the South in their 
work, and that we will be glad to demonstrate to 
you or tell you about if you will visit us in season. 
Our grain breeding work which usually consists 
of around 15,000 plant-to-rows and head-to-rows, 
besides several acres of small increase and test 
plots, is one of the most interesting and practical 
scientific projects to be seen anywhere in the world. 
It can usually be viewed to best advantage during 
late April or May. The contributions which our 
grain breeding has already made to Southern agri¬ 
culture in new and more productive strains of oats 
of high cold and smut-resistance and of a new and 
superior wheat, especially adapted to the coastal 
plain, are already widely known and utilized. Many 
new strains of both oats and wheat, some of great 
potential value, the results of crosses with foreign 
strains high in rust-resistance, are in process of 
testing and increase. 
I will not discuss here our very extensive cotton 
and tobacco work and its results except to call 
attention to the undoubted fact that it has improved 
the quality, yield and money value of these crops 
over wide areas and has added comfort and satis¬ 
faction to many a Southern home. 
Visitors are Welcomed at 
Coker Farms 
