
Inaugurates A 
Assembling the seed order. Note the little desk which is 
part of the assembly cart and the well lighted sturdy 
metal bins, 
Here Is THE inside story of how 
conditions brought on by World War 
II made possible Corneli’s Speed-up 
system of filling orders the same day 
they are received. Just a few min- 
utes with Earl Page, the company’s 
energetic president, convinces one 
that here is a company not content 
to rest on its laurels or remain static 
in the face of changing conditions. 
Even though Corneli Seed Co., St. 
Louis, Mo., “Seeds since 1845,” prides 
itself on being the “Oldest Seed 
House West of the Mississippi,” Mr. 
Page believes in keeping abreast of 
the needs of the times. 
“Bruce Barton, well known author 
and advertising man, once said, ‘When 
you are through changing, you're 
through,” commented Mr. Page, 
“and I often think of that when we 
are faced with new problems brought 
about by ever changing conditions. 
Either you face them and solve them, 
and go forward, or you try to dodge 
them and find yourself left by the 
parade. 
“World War IL, he continued, 
“forced us to put into operation a 
revolutionary plan of filling whole- 
sale orders that include broken bag 
quantities. It is adapted in mail 
order procedure, but with us hs 
used solely for filling dealer orders 
as we sell only at wholesale. As a 
result of this new system, we are able 
to ship hundreds of fill-in orders the 
same day the orders are received. 
Not only does it permit us to make 
quick shipment of fill-in orders, but 
it also enables us to rapidly fill con- 
tract orders at the peak of our ship- 
ping seasori.” 
Standardized Prepackaging Plan 
Corneli calls it the Standardized 
Prepackaging Plan. It was born of 
necessity during World War II. The 
company, like most firms, during the 
War was faced with a man-power 
shortage when many of its experi- 
enced order clerks left for the Army 
or Navy. 
“At this point,” said Mr. Page, “we 
called in two of our most capable 
and experienced men, Charlie Allen, 
manager of plant operations, who has 
been with us 24 years, and Dick 
Becker, our garden seed foreman, 17 
years with Corneli. Full credit goes 
to these two seedsmen for working 
out so successfully the details of our 
new system of expediting shipments.” 
To make it possible and safe 
to use inexperienced help and _ girls 
to fill orders, Corneli completely re- 
vised its order filling department. 
This was done by installing thou- 
sands of feet of steel shelving and 
steel bins for various sized packages 
of the numerous varieties of vegetable 
seed. The prepackaged seeds range 
from. one pound to. sixty pounds 
depending upon kind and variety of 
seed. 
For example, beans, peas and corn, 
are prepackaged in sizes of 5, 10, 30 
and 60 pounds and, of course, full 
bags. On such kinds as beet, carrot, 
cantaloupe, cucumber and lettuce, the 
standardized packages are 1, 2, 5, 10 
and 25 pounds and full bags. On 
some of the higher priced items such 
as broccoli, brussels cauli- 
flower, onion, pepper and tomato 
seed, the prepackaging is done in 
sprouts, 
To Meet Changing Conditions 
Corneli Seed Company 
BS aidirdized 
repackaging 
ER 
By K. A. Metzger 
quarter-pound, 1, 5 and 25 pound 
sizes and full bags. 
How An Order Is Filled 
When the order is received in the 
order-filling department, an experi- 
enced order editor examines it care- 
fully for instructions as to special 
packaging, seed-treating or anything 
else that may be unusual. Any item 
on the order that may require special 
attention is handled accordingly. 
Regular orders (those not requiring 
special handling of any kind) are 
handed to order-filling clerks called 
assemblers. “The assembler places the 
order before her on a little table 
which is part of a four-wheel steel 
cart she will use to fill the order. 
The order is held in place with 
an ordinary snap. This makes it 
convenient for the girl to check off 
and write in the lot numbers as she 
passes through the aisles assembling 
the items specified. There is no 
lost motion or delay because each 
size of each variety has been packed 
in multiple runs by experienced men 
and women and stored in its own 
compartment on steel shelves. 
One of the illustrations shows a 
section of Corneli’s package filling 
department. Several of these units 
are in operation all of the time in 
addition to many Brown automatic 
filling and sealing machines. Units 
like the one pictured are used mostly 
for filling 2 to 10 pound bags. 
Semi-automatic fillers are used and 
each package is checked on Exact- 
Weight scales. Each package carries 
a complete laboratory analysis state- 
ment with up-to-date germination test. 
This is real service and quick. 
(Reprinted from Seed World issue of May 6, 1949.) 
