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THE PACKER, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1951. J 
©. S. Twilley 
East’s Largest Independent 
Seed Man Into Busy Season 
SALISBURY, MD., Aug. 17. - 
Farmers and home gardeners 
see a breathing spell on the 
horizon, for summer is nearing 
the fag end and even the late 
crops will be in by frost.’ 
But there’s no prospect of such 
relaxation for the seed man. 
Right now he’s coming into his 
busiest season—gathering seeds 
for next year. 
Take Otis S. Twilley of this 
Eastern Shore city. June and 
July are his slack months. As 
August gets under way though, 
Mr. Twilley gets down to work. 
too. He'll be collecting seeds 
through September. 
At the same time, seed orders 
from the southern states will 
harass nim all next month, and 
through December. Orders from 
the central states and the east 
pile up from January through 
May. 
Winter His Big Season 
Mr. Twilley is a unique man 
in agricultural circles. As the 
man who makes crops possible, 
By R. L. MOORE 
he’s busiest during the winter 
when the more conventional 
type of farmer can take things 
a little easier. 
He is recognized as the larg- 
est independent seed man in the 
east. His future, it seems, was 
already carved out when his 
father gave him two acres of 
land on which to grow vege- 
tables for spending money. 
Mr. Twilley, then 14 years 
old, went to work on his first 
crop—tomatoes. Fusarian wilt 
leveled it. Next season he got 
some wilt-resistant seed from 
the University of Maryland and 
grew an excellent crop. 
Later, he financed his way 
through the university by sell- 
ing wilt-resistant tomato seed. 
He was the first to sell that kind 
of seed commercially. 
At present, he has local farm- 
ers growing seeds for him on 
more than 500 acres of land in 
Maryland and near-by Dela- 
ware. 
Mr. Twilley started to farm 
here in 1921, just as a depres- 
sion dealt the nation’s economy 
a heavy blow. He found income 
from seed sales steadier, so he 
specialized. 
Business is broken down this 
way: retail mail order, on con- 
tract for seed houses and whole- 
sale to seed dealers. His terri- 
tory ranges as far south as 
Miami and as far west as Iowa. 
He has trial grounds where 
varieties are tested. Breeding 
plots are used to improve varie- 
ties. Increased plots build up 
the quantity of seeds of tested 
and tried varieties. Seed fields 
are plots where seed is grown 
for sale. 
One big cnange in the seed 
business, he says, is the develop- 
ment of hybrid corn. He was 
once the biggest independent 
producer of hybrid corn in 
Maryland. He abandoned the 
line because it conflicted with 
other vegetables. 
Mr. Twilley finds time to 
teach a veterans ‘‘on-the-farm”’ 
class in agriculture at Wicomico 
high school. 
A Friendly Message to Our Customers 
This catalog is sent you in friendliness. 
fidence in Twilley’s Seed. 
I am very proud that 
garden. 
you have always shown so much 
Your confidence is causing our business to inerease very rapidly. 
The seed business is my life and work. 
boy I took great delight in my flower and vegetable 
By the time I was fifteen I had won a great 
many first prizes for exhibits at county and state fairs. 
It has been my good fortune to personally sell seed from 
the Florida Everglades to the market garden sections of 
New England, from New Jersey to the important vege- 
table growing sections of the Midwest. 
pleasure to personally know so many of you. 
ltr isa 
2. 
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