Coker Pedigreed Seed Company | South Carolina Public Radio

"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.. The focus was on cotton, but Coker expanded the project to include corn, oats, rye, peas, sorghum, and eventually tobacco. Originally managed as a division of J.L. Coker and Company, the Pedigreed Seed Company was incorporated in 1918 as a separate business with headquarters in Hartsville. By the mid-1960s 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 flue-cured tobacco in the southeastern United States. The Coker family sold the Coker Pedigreed Seed Company in 1978, and a decade later, its successors terminated operations in Hartsville.