The Shaker Seed Company was an American seed company that was owned and operated by the Shakers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, many Shaker communities produced several vegetable seed varieties for sale. The company created innovations in the marketing of seedsincluding distributing, packaging and catalogingall of which changed the horticultural business model forever.
The Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon, New York, was the most successful and the first to use the name Shaker Seed Company in advertising. As its stationery reveals, the company adopted the phrase "Experto crede" as its motto, noting its establishment in 1794.
Background
In August 1774, nine Shakers from England landed in New York City. In the fall of 1776 they settled in Watervliet, New York. Their religion soon spread throughout the Northeast, and around the year of 1787 a headquarters was established at New Lebanon, New York. By the mid-19th century some eighteen major, long-term settlements Shaker had been established.
The Shakers were avid gardeners who saved the best seeds to cultivate the following year. Historian D.A. Buckingham states that Joseph Turner of Watervliet assigned about two acres of land in 1790 for the purpose of raising vegetable seeds to sell for an income. He is the first known Shaker to package seeds for sale, making him the first American seed salesman. The Watervliet Shakers were the first people in the United States to sell garden seeds commercially. About this same time the Shaker community at New Lebanon began selling their surplus seeds. However, it was not until 1795 that they set aside land for the purpose of seed production for sale to outsiders. Shakers also did this at Canterbury, New Hampshire, and Hancock, Massachusetts.
Sales
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Shaker seed salesmen were one of the few sources of seeds for the American gardener. Seed sales was one of the Shakers' most successful enterprises, providing the greater portion of their total income. The Shaker seed business stemmed from their rural agricultural roots and sold mostly to small villages and farming communities in the northeastern United States. Their marketing techniques were state of the art. The Shaker Seed Company became known for high quality and fair prices. The Shakers provided useful thingsgarden seedsat a time of need for American pioneers.
The Shakers of New Lebanon sold their own garden seeds from 1794. Commercial sales as "a prominent industry" began in 1800. At their zenith, the Shakers of New Lebanon sold over 37,000 pounds of seeds for a value of nearly $34,000 in a 25-year period in the mid-nineteenth century. About this same time the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire and the Enfield Shakers in Connecticut had joined the seed selling business as well with over a hundred acres dedicated just to seed production. The Mount Lebanon community was the most successful of all the Shaker communities in purveying seeds. From 1800 to 1880 the Shakers sold their seeds throughout North America, and the seeds were considered of the highest quality available. In many cases, the Shaker seeds were the only seed source for rural Americans.
New Lebanon sales records show that in the decade before and after 1800 the onion seed sold the best. Shaker peddler Artemas Markham showed in his records of 1795 that over 200 pounds of onion seeds were sold. In 1800 over 44 pounds of a variety of vegetable seeds sold, including mangelwurzel blood beet, carrot, cucumber, and summer squash, begetting $406 in income. Vegetables seeds were the main offering; however, flowers, herbs, and grasses also were available. The height of the Shaker seed business was in 1840, constituting at that point their chief industry.
The Shaker Seed Company of New Lebanon listed just over a dozen varieties of seeds in their early years. By 1873 they were offering eight different kinds of tomato, seven kinds of turnip, six kinds of lettuce, nine kinds of squash, eleven kinds of cabbage, sixteen kinds of peas, and fifteen kinds of beans. Their catalogs offered over a hundred kinds of seeds by 1890.
Paper envelope packaging
The Shakers are credited with developing the idea of putting seeds in small paper envelope-style packets to sell to the general public. They introduced the innovation of placing tiny seeds in small paper envelopes bearing printed planting instructions for best results as well as storage and sometimes cooking suggestions. The Shakers were the first to use paper envelope-style packets as a strategy to sell and distribute seeds.