One for the historians -- Carters Seeds

[Adam Lawrence]

It's very clear that the seed merchants were extremely influential in the early days of the golf industry back at the beginning of the 20th century.


We know that Colt became a paid consultant to Suttons extremely early in his career, and thanks to Tony Muldoon, we have some quite good information on that relationship.


However, when he first came to the US in 1911, it seems clear that he was introduced to his clients in Toronto and Detroit by Suttons' rivals Carters. We have good evidence that Carters did a lot of business in the US in those early years; their manager Reginald Beale was a regular visitor to the States and wrote a short book on greenkeeping and course construction in about 1916.


So my question to the historians on here is, when did Carters first get established in the US golf business? And what is the most complete list of courses that they worked on that we can find?

[Cal Seifert]

Hasn't it been said that CBM had a difficult time seeding NGLA? In the end I guess Carter's seeds are what he chose.

[Adam Lawrence]

Yes, that's definitely so -- it's cited in Beale's 1916 book.

[Niall C]

Adam,


Can't really say much about what Carter's did in US but Reg Beale contributed on an infrequent basis to the UK mags even suggesting in one article how bunkers should be built ie natural. That would have been in about 1909 I think. He also wouldn't be too enamoured with the fad for using sleepers in bunkers as he was dead against it.


Niall

[Sven Nilsen]

Houston Post - Jan. 7, 1923







Golf Illustrated - April 1923



There were a bunch of other ads from the early 20's that noted courses being built under the "Carter System."

[Sven Nilsen]

Carter's US Agent in 1919 was a firm known as Peterson, Sinclaire & Miller, who probably helped to arrange a lot of Willie Park's work.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Fred Smith (primary designer at Ballybunion) was in the employ of Carter's if I remember correctly.

[Adam Lawrence]

Adam,


Can't really say much about what Carter's did in US but Reg Beale contributed on an infrequent basis to the UK mags even suggesting in one article how bunkers should be built ie natural. That would have been in about 1909 I think. He also wouldn't be too enamoured with the fad for using sleepers in bunkers as he was dead against it.


Niall

Given his full name was Reginald Evelyn Child Beale, I severely doubt anyone called him Reg 

[Rich Goodale]

https://valuablebook.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/the-golf-causerie-john-sutherland-of-royal-dornoch-golf-club/


This book (which is mostly a reprint of John Sutherland's "London Daily News" columns in the early 20th century) has several references to Carter's.  Unfortunately my copy of the book is in Florida, so I can't quote, but it does contain a lot of expert (for its time) comment about golf course agronomy in the UK, US, Europe and Japan.  The book is hard work, but highly recommended for history wing-nuts.

[Bret Lawrence]

A good source may be: The Golf Course.  This publication is available through The Michigan State University turf grass website:
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/gcmb/


This series predates the USGA Green Section Review and it was produced by Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc. in conjunction with Carters Tested Seeds.  A few articles in 1916 were written by Reginald Beale.  Greenkeeping notes were written by Peter Lees. A.W. Tillinghast and other experts of that time also contributed articles. It's an interesting look into early American course construction and upkeep in the teens and early 20's.

[Jim_Kennedy]

University of Reading (UK, not Pa.) has lots of Carter's info.

"The records, apart from a 1931 publication printing reference book, comprise some 388 different advertising publications for 1877-1968, referring to agricultural and horticultural seeds, plants and shrubs. In addition there are 29 captioned photographic prints of Carters' Raynes Park premises, located in the MERL Photograph Library, taken in 1968(Nov) by Mrs. E.M. Jowett."

http://www.reading.ac.uk/adlib/Details/archive/110140307

[Jim_Kennedy]

'The Practical Greenkeeper' by Beale for Carter's, 1921
https://archive.org/stream/CAT31305298#page/n4/mode/1up


Numerous other photos from PV, Merion, Detroit, Brookline, etc.. The one of the 17th at Lakeview in Toronto is astounding, as is "Het Girdle" from the King's Course at Gleneagles. There's also a three page list of clubs and orgs. (approx. 600 of them) that used Carter's Tested Seeds, Fertilizers, and Worm Eradicator.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Stumpp and Walters were competitors and a few of their catalogs are here ( the Carter's/Beale catalog too) :
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/subject/Golf%20courses#/titles

Couldn't resist posting this photo of a green being constructed at Nassau CC, when men were men. 

[Adam Lawrence]

University of Reading (UK, not Pa.) has lots of Carter's info.

"The records, apart from a 1931 publication printing reference book, comprise some 388 different advertising publications for 1877-1968, referring to agricultural and horticultural seeds, plants and shrubs. In addition there are 29 captioned photographic prints of Carters' Raynes Park premises, located in the MERL Photograph Library, taken in 1968(Nov) by Mrs. E.M. Jowett."

http://www.reading.ac.uk/adlib/Details/archive/110140307

Yeah, it does, and it's a very useful archive. But unfortunately it's almost all printed material -- catalogues etc. If they had correspondence it'd be a gold mine.

[Thomas Dai]

Great photo Jim.


Always interesting to see photos of old courses under construction. Lots to learn from studying them.


Be nice to have an photo archive of some sort within GCA of this kind of photo.


atb

[Niall C]

Adam,


Can't really say much about what Carter's did in US but Reg Beale contributed on an infrequent basis to the UK mags even suggesting in one article how bunkers should be built ie natural. That would have been in about 1909 I think. He also wouldn't be too enamoured with the fad for using sleepers in bunkers as he was dead against it.


Niall

Given his full name was Reginald Evelyn Child Beale, I severely doubt anyone called him Reg 

Close friends called him Reggie 


Niall

[Jim_Kennedy]

Here's another Carter's publication, this one from 1914. It mainly deals w/gardening but there's an earlier listing of hundreds of golf clubs using their seed, plus this list of clubs made using the "Carter System" (banner years for them in '11 and '12).                                                                                              The link should take you right to pg 124 where the lists begin:

https://archive.org/stream/JamesCarterComa00JameAN#page/124/mode/2up/search/gol



The list of "Carter System" users. Some 600 bushels were used at NGLA, and 1,015 at Old Elm. Three of these courses appear to be on private estates.




The catalog also included this photo of Ouimet, Ray, and Vardon on the 18th hole of their playoff during the '13 US Open.