Third Avenues on the east and west and by Burroughs and Amsterdam Avenues on the north and south, the city's northern limit at that time. C.C. Morse & Co. Meanwhile, in 1874, R. W. Wilson began a seed-producing company based in Santa Clara, California. However, Wilson's health was poor, and in 1877 he sold the operation to Charles Copeland Morse and A. L. Kellogg. Morse built the company up, and in 1884 bought out Kellogg and incorporated as C.C. Morse & Co. Charles Copeland Morse died abruptly in 1900, and his son Lester Morse took over the business. The 1906 earthquake demolished the firm's facilities, but they quickly moved to temporary space in San Francisco, and the company bought out Cox Seed and Plant. Mergers and acquisitions In the early 1900s, D.M. Ferry bought land in California to grow crops for seed. In 1921, they bought the commission packet business from Morse. By 1930, Ferry was growing most of its seed in California, and the two firms had complementary businesses. A merger made sense for both companies, and in 1930 they combined to form the Ferry-Morse Company. The combined firm became the largest seed distribution company in the world. In 1959, the headquarters of the business moved to western Kentucky. In 1981, Ferry-Morse became part of France's Groupe Limagrain, the largest seed producer in the world. In 2005, Groupe Limagrain sold Ferry-Morse to Jiffy International. In 2012, Seed Holdings acquired Ferry-Morse from Jiffy. The business was merged into Plantation Products, a privately owned gardening company based in Massachusetts. Plantation Products later changed its name to Green Garden Products. In 2021, Central Garden & Pet acquired Green Garden Products and its brand names Ferry-Morse, American Seed, Livingston Seed, McKenzie, NK Lawn & Garden, Jiffy, SUPERthrive, Dyna-Gro and Seeds of Change. References External links Ferry-Morse Seed Co. Archives at Special Collections Dept. , University Library, University of California, Davis Digitized copies of D.M. Ferry seed catalogs, incomplete from 1871 to 1930, Biodiversity Heritage Library Seed companies Companies based in Kentucky Companies based in Santa Clara, California Agriculture companies of the United States 1856 establishments in Michigan