This is the VOA SpecialEnglish AGRICULTURE REPORT.
An American company famous for selling plant seeds is observing amajor anniversary. The Burpee Seed Company isone-hundred-twenty-five years old.
The Burpee Company was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniain Eighteen-Seventy-Six. W. Atlee Burpee started the company withone-thousand dollars he borrowed from his mother. Company officialssay Mister Burpee first planned to sell chickens by mail. But hesoon discovered that Americans wanted seeds for vegetables, flowersand grains.
Over the years, millions of people have seen magazines thatdescribe Burpee products and tell how to buy them. The company mailsthese catalogs to anyone who wants them.
The catalogs describe different kinds of crops. For example, theBurpee Company began to offer seeds for iceberg lettuce inEighteen-Ninety-Four. It was the first kind of lettuce that remainedfresh from the time farmers harvested it to the time people in thecities ate it. Farmers grow many kinds of lettuce in the UnitedStates. But iceberg lettuce is the most popular.
One reason for the Burpee Company’s success was its developmentof seeds. Mister Burpee traveled to Europe to collect seeds ofplants not grown in the United States. Also, some farmers offeredhim seeds from their best crops.
In Eighteen-Eighty-Eight, Mister Burpee bought a farm nearPhiladelphia where he could test seeds. Twenty years later, hebought more farmland in the state of California. California’s warmclimate permitted him to develop products that he could not grow onthe East Coast.
The Burpee Company quickly became one of the world’s largest seedcompanies. By Nineteen-Fifteen, it was sending its catalogs toone-million Americans each year.
Today, the company sells seeds for more than five-hundred kindsof vegetables and more than six-hundred flowers. It also offers morethan three-hundred kinds of young plants.
Ten years ago, another American business, the George J. BallCompany, purchased the Burpee Company. However, Burpee’sheadquarters remain in Pennsylvania. The company still publishescatalogs of its products as it did one-hundred years ago. Manystores sell Burpee seeds. And, people with computers can buy seedsby using the Internet computer system.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.