Detroit was — once, and briefly — the world-capital of seed production, as the headquarters of the D.M. Ferry Seed Co., founded by Dexter Mason Ferry in 1856. Today, you can find Ferry-Morse seed packets on the seasonal shelves at any old neighborhood big box store. That’s in part because Dexter Mason Ferry, way back in the 19th century, had the bright idea to expand beyond the mail-order business and sell his seed packets in Ferry Co.-branded boxes and racks at neighborhood general stores, where shoppers could browse a sampling of popular seeds to grow in their backyard and kitchen gardens.
For more information, see “Zillions of Seeds : Once again the venerable Ferry-Morse Co., world’s biggest seller of home garden seeds, helps bring a crop of springtime aches and promises to America’s backyard diggers“, Life, April 2, 1951.
Also see Amy Elliott Bragg, “How Detroit changed the backyard garden”, Night Train, March 2, 2015