The Nomco Story

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"Well then, how do we apply for the analysis?"

"You can't. There's no money in the budget."

Onnalee—who is part Irish, redheaded and seldom at a loss for words—was left speechless by this "Catch-22" line of reasoning . . . and Nate was even more upset by the actions of another large, eastern, land-grant university.

The Vegetable Crop Department of the second school did accept a test sample of B.S.A.,then claimed the soil conditioner had been lost and advised the Morrells to "wait awhile" before submitting a new specimen. Imagine the couple's surprise over a year and a half later, then, when quite by by accident—Nate discovered that the sample had not been lost at all.l It had, in fact, placed first in germination, growth, color and yield in a test against 13 other products!

The Morrells, of course, could hardly believe that the experimental lab of a reputable university would tell them that it had lost their specimen, test the material . . . and then neglect to tell them that their product had proven superior to every other soil conditioner against which it was compared. They he believed it, though, when they visited the school and saw the test results in writing.

"Well, better late than never," says Nate. "Delayed as it was, the release of that test information proved to be the turning point in our venture. The university wouldn't let us use a, name in our advertising but it did offer to confirm the reports to anyone who called in a request. I had the Small Business Administration and our bank get a copy of the confidential report and—on the basis of the information it contained—borrowed more money to keep NOMCO afloat. Things have been picking up ever since."

Lest anyone get the impression that he's down on all land-grant colleges and research stations, Nate hastens to praise the ones that have taken pains to give the NOMCO soil conditioner impartial and unbiased tests. He has particularly warm feelings for Prof. Frank Campbell at the University of Maine's Waltham Field Station, where several experiments with the Morrell product are underway . . . for Dr. Walter Larmie, who—at the University of Rhode Island—has found that the NOMCO soil conditioner will help greenhouse flowers produce 19% more No. 1 blossoms that stay in bloom up to 10 times longer than untreated plants . . . and Dr. Richard Ashley of the University of Connecticut who—after adding the Morrell product to test plots to improve drainage—said, "No matter what I did, I couldn't make it go wrong!"

"These men could have refused us also," Nate says, "but, instead, agreed to try our soil conditioner and give us a full report with no strings attached. They're a credit to the original intent of the whole land-grant college concept."

While the Morrells were struggling with the problems of distribution, biased tests, secondhand equipment and all the other setbacks faced by any small, new business . . . they were also refining their B.S.A. formula.

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