Arthur Yates & Co - Seed Merchants & Growers - 1882 to 1985

Arthur Yates & Co premises, Queen & High Streets, Auckland, circa 1902. 

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Auckland Provincial District, volume 2, 1902, entry on pp 400-401 (reformatted into shorter paragraphs):

"Yates, Arthur, and Co. (Arthur Yates and Ernest Yates), Wholesale and Retail Seed Merchants and Growers, Queen Street, Auckland. Bankers, Bank of New South Wales. Cable address, “Seedsman, Auckland.” Head establishment, Mr. Samuel Yates, 75 Shudehill Street, Manchester; Australian branch, 237 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South Wales, established 1887.


This well-known business was first established by Mr. Samuel Yates in 1826, and is now one of the largest businesses of its kind in England.


The Auckland branch was established in 1882, and to such an extent has the business grown that it has been found necessary to extend the premises, which now consist of a large three-storey warehouse with a thirty-three feet frontage to Queen and High Streets, and a depth of 200 feet, and a total floorage space of over 14,000 square feet. Machinery for seed cleaning has been especially imported from England, and fitted up in the new premises, and the firm claims to hold the largest stock of garden and farm seeds in the Colony.


There are seed farms at Mangere and Papatoitoi under the management of Mr. E. Allan. There are agents of the firm in every town of importance in the Colony, and a complete catalogue of “Yates' Reliable Seeds” can be obtained free from any leading storekeeper, or direct from the head office in Auckland, as well as the firm's other publications, “Yates' Garden Guide,” and “How to Grow Onions for Market.”"

As previous posts suggest, Arthur Yates & Co flourished in the decades following, specializing in seeds for the home gardener. Apparently the family business continued to be profitable in the hands of Arthur Yates' children and grandchildren until such time as it passed from their hands into those of the financial speculators. As Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand puts it here:

"For 102 years the Arthur Yates seed company supplied seed and garden advice to New Zealand gardeners. Arthur Yates, the founder of the company, was the son and grandson of British seed merchants. His children and grandchildren ran the company profitably until it was taken over by ill-fated investment bank Equiticorp, and went into receivership in 1985."

Not the first time, nor the last, that a main street business was driven into bankruptcy by the speculators and a carefully-tended enterprise was cast off as if dust in the wind.

Calendar Boy - Arthur Yates & Co Calendar Cover 1948

 Arthur Yates & Co Calendar Cover 1948

 

In an earlier age when most households still relied on home grown fruit and vegetables for a sizable share of their annual food, it was all hands to the garden both out of economic necessity and as social activity. Children were socialized in the arts of plant husbandry - soil preparation, planting, fertilising, watering, weeding, harvesting and the like. Post harvest it was about storing and preserving - bottling, making jam, and the like. If little boys didn't get trained in the kitchen arts in those days they at least got to taste samples and the naturally curious learned enough so they could years later work out how mum used to make all those things.

This old bird recalls empty seed packets of Arthur Yates & Co pierced by pieces of kindling wood at the end of planted rows marking where particular vegetables had been planted. In my neck of the veggie garden between the two apple trees, I remember planting sweet corn because that was something dad didn't plant as well as peas, radishes, and a few other things, expanding to green and chili peppers in later years. And since we lived within earshot of Lancaster Park in Christchurch, I can remember being in the garden and dad, upon hearing a large cheer from the crowd at the Park, declaring: Canterbury must have scored!

Now try to get most youngsters today - beyond the age of the lad pictured above - to tear themselves away from their video games or the mall to get outdoors for awhile let alone into the garden.

Methinks something was lost. And, please, don't try to get me all cheered up by the local food movement, farmers' markets shenanigans and all that. It still has a long, long way to go. Maybe too long a way with not so very much long term commitment from enough people. But you've got to hope - and take action, right?

What did your garden grow?

Calendar Girl - Arthur Yates & Co Calendar Cover 1946

Arthur Yates & Co Calendar Girl, cover, 1946

It was long a marketing custom of many businesses in New Zealand to issue a calendar shortly before year's end to extend season's greetings and generate a measure of goodwill. Sometimes households experienced an embarrassment of riches, quite what would they do with all these calendars? Arthur Yates & Co was one such company that produced an annual calendar, an example of their 1946 calendar cover is pictured above.

Seeds of Things to Come - Arthur Yates & Co Ltd Seed Catalogue 1932

 

Arthur Yates & Co 1932 garden annual cover

 
Arthur Yates & Co Ltd Seed Catalogue 1932

Arthur Yates & Co Seed Catalogue for 1932, offering among other things, parsnip, carrot, radish, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, onion, cauliflower, beet, turnip, and swede seeds. 

Never a fan of brassicas, cabbage and cauliflower, let alone turnips and swedes, left me cold as a child. Of course, I was told they were good for me - and I have to admit the medical and scientific evidence seems to be pointing in that direction. Persuade me with science, not with blind faith & "because I told you so's" directing me to eat the stuff!

The advertising copy states that the combined price for the seed packets pictured amounts to 6/- (6 shillings to the whippersnappers among you), equivalent to about NZ$32 in end of 2009 prices according to the handy dandy Reserve Bank of New Zealand calculator found here.