HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 6-21-14

(From the 1908 Business Supplement to the Wicomico Advertiser)

FARMERS AND PLANTERS COMPANY

FERTILIZERS, COAL, LIME, HAIR, FARM IMPLEMENTS,

SEEDS, SHINGLES, BRICKS, ETC.

Among the many big enterprises of Salisbury, there is none that stands higher in her business life or keeps in closer touch with the builders and planters of the Eastern Shore than the Farmers’ and Planters’ Company, of which Mr. Glen Perdue is manager. For many years this company has been supplying the needs of thousands of patrons and they are familiar with the requirements of every kind of soil, and of every locality. The goods handled by them are of the very best and especially adapted to theEastern Shore. Their fertilizers are manufactured from formulas that years of experimenting have brought the best results in the products peculiar to the Peninsula, and these include “Truckers’ Mixture”, “Special Fish”, “Fish Mixture”, “General Crop Grower”, “Bone and Potash”, “Standard Mixture”, “Special Wheat”, Dry Fish, Dissolved Bone, Raw Bone Meal, High Grade Tankage, Muriate Potage, Nitrate Soda, Dissolved S.C. Rock, and Kamit. In farm implements, they are agents for the world famous Deering Harvesting Machinery, Ideal Binders, Ideal Mowers, Ideal Steel Rakes, Deering Sicle (sic) Grinders, Deering Binding Twine, Imperial Chilled Plows, Imperial Disc Harrows, Hallock Success Weeders, Tiger Corn Planters, Tiger Transplanters, Tiger Disc Harrows, Tiger Riding and Walking Cultivators, McWhorter Fertilizer Distributors, Keystone One-Horse Corn and Pea Planters, Keystone Fertilizer Distributors, Superior Single and Double Disc Drills, Superior Disc One-Horse Corn and Pea Planters. The building materials comprise Lump Lime, Texas Alum lime, Cements, plaster hair, long coat, and winter cow hair, and the company are also selling agents for the Peninsula Brick Company’s red, arch, salmon, and paving bricks. It will be seen from this partial list of specialties handled that the business conducted is very extensive. No contract is too great or too small for this company to undertake, and the trade extends throughout the Eastern Shore country,Delaware and Virginia. The business was established many years ago, and in 1898 Mr. Perdue became the sole proprietor, and under his able direction it has won a place of distinction unexcelled by any enterprise of its kind in this section of Maryland.

(Even though this was written 106 years ago, the business is still thriving and is one of the few businesses still around in 2014 performing basically the same service. The ad pictured is from the First Great Fair in Salisbury in 1909. The Fair was held on the SE corner of Pemberton Drive and Parsons Road.)