“C” is for Coker’s Pedigreed Seed Company

“C” is for Coker’s Pedigreed Seed Company. Coker's Pedigreed Seed Company had its origins in the efforts of David R. Coker to develop and market a highly productive variety of upland cotton that yielded fiber of superior quality and length. Over the years the company maintained a staff of talented plant breeders and became a major supplier of improved seeds for field crops. By the mid-1960's the company had seed breeding operations in several states and Mexico and was supplying the seeds for the majority of acreage devoted to cotton, oats, and flu-cured tobacco in the southeastern United States. The Coker family which had owned and operated the company from its beginning, sold it in 1978 to KWS Seed Company of Germany. Northrop King Company acquired Coker's Pedigreed Seed Company in 1988 and terminated the operations in Hartsville.