History
The history of Medina Agriculture Products Company begins with the story of a country inventor by the name of James Martin, know by his friends and business associates simply as "Mr. Martin." Although Mr. Martin had less than five years of formal schooling, he was an avid reader and determined scientist.
During his lifetime, Mr. Martin experimented with dozens of inventions, including perpetual motion machines and natural pesticide products. But his real interest was in the world of microorganisms. He was fascinated with the army of natural "bugs" that are responsible for balancing and controlling the world we live in. He felt that the greatest application of this biotechnology was in agriculture, to help farmers grow more abundant crops without depleting the soil of valuable resources.
Martin also knew that productive soil required an abundance of beneficial microbes. For several decades, he researched methods of developing a product that contained huge quantities of these living-giving bugs. He was part alchemist, attempting to transform one substance into another. He was part agronomist, with a deep understanding of the plant-to-soil relationships. He was wholly an early-day environmentalist, determined to find a natural product that complemented natural forces. In the spirit of Thomas Edison, Martin experienced years of failed experiments on his way to developing his revolutionary - but often misunderstood - product now know as Medina Soil Activator.
The Business Ventures
To say the least, Mr. Martin’s discovery was several decades ahead of its time. And to compound problems, he was not particularly interested in business.
Mr. Martin said in his later years that he preferred "planting the biological story in people’s minds" rather than running a day-to-day business operation.
By 1953, Mr. Martin knew he had a valuable product. But, like other brilliant inventors, he needed money to continue his work. He contacted a group of small investors in Arizona, and kicked of hiss first business venture. Under pressure form the investors to protect their money, he patented a version of his new invention in 1956. The patent was different in many ways to the make-up of today’s Medina Soil Activator. Perhaps Martin sought to protect his secret from public records.
This first business venture lasted only a few years. The product was not well marketed, since it was sold only in bulk, and was not packaged into smaller containers. Little was understood about biological balances at that time. Farmland was abundant, agricultural automation was exploding across America, and few people were interested in organic products. The wheels of agriculture weren’t squeaking, so they didn’t need oiling with James Martin’s soil activators.
The Frontier Café
In the late 1950’s, Mr. Martin met an Arizona truck driver and uranium prospector by the name of Floyd Lillard. Floyd was to become the second of three men who helped bring the soil activator to life. In 1960, Mr. Martin and Floyd left for Texas to take advantage of the state’s growing agriculture economy. They traveled thought the southern part of the state, looking for opportunities for their biological wonder. But like the Arizona experience, few people had the time or interest for their product.
Mr. Martin was drinking a cup of coffee at the Frontier Café, in the small farm town of Hondo, TX when he struck up a conversation wit Arthur Franke. Arthur, a local farmer and bachelor, took many of his meals at the café. He was skeptical of Martin’s philosophy on biological balances, but was drawn by Mr. Martin’s sense of sincerity and personal charisma. Over the next five months and countless cups of coffee, Mr. Martin Floyd Lillard and Arthur Franke talked about farming, microbes, natural laws and chemistry. Finally, Arthur told Mr. Martin "I’d like to have a gallon to try".
According to Arthur, Mr. Martin smiled, his eyes lit up, then said "we’ll have to go make some first." This was the unofficial beginning of the company that would later be called Medina Agricultural Products Company, Inc. The trio gathered materials to make the new soil activator and Arthur fabricated the processing equipment in his spare time. Many months later, the first container of Medina Soil Activator was processed.
Over the next few months, Arthur applied the activator to his farmlands. Mr. Martin had cautioned him that the results would not be immediately noticeable, but Arthur grew impatient with the process. It wasn’t until harvest time that he realized the truth about Mr. Martin’s process. First, Arthur noticed the soil was softer, and crumbled in his hands. Then, his grain crop weighted in at 3 lbs. heavier per bushel than his previous year’s crop, and heavier than the local farmer’s.
In 1962, the Medina company was incorporated in business. Since Mr. Martin and Floyd Lillard had no other source of income, Arthur paid them each $40.00 per week out of his own pocket. The company’s first commercial product, called Medina Soil Conditioner, was sold in drums to local farmers. Years later, the state regulatory commission required Medina to change the products name to Medina Soil Activator. Since their product didn’t fall into any current fertilizer categories, government officials had a difficult time trying to decide how it should be registered. Today, Medina Soil Activator is registered as a fertilizer due to its micronutrient content.
Shortly after Arthur’s successful experience with the product, the group decided to put it to the test on salt-saturated farm fields destroyed by Hurricane Carla along the Texas coast. The soil activator literally ate the salt residue, allowing many farmers to harvest an appreciable crop that year. News of the success reached Dewey Compton, a highly respected horticultural expert, who began talking about it on his radio talk show program. Sales immediately jumped in the Texas coastal bend region, and word spread to other pats of the country as well.
In Houston, a woman heard of this strange new product and decided to try it on her garden tomatoes. She was so delighted with results that she encouraged her husband, O.P. Murphy, to use it in his commercial tomato fields. O.P. tested the Medina on 500 acres of tomatoes in California that season, and reported to the company that his production increased nearly 15% from 35 tons/acre to 40 tons/acre. Like many other users, O.P. continues to use Medina on approximately 4000 acres of his commercial vegetables year after year.
Over the next dozen years, the company thrived on marketing their products word-of-mouth. One satisfied farmer told another farm about Medina’s soil building qualities. Arthur Franke and Floyd Lillard managed the day-to-day business, and Mr. Martin continued to refine his product. One day, Mr. Martin showed Arthur Franke his latest evolution of the product, and said that "this will replace everything you have." Until his death in 1975, Mr. Martin was continually learning and growing, and working to make his product as effective as possible.
Martin the Mentor
Stuart Franke, a nephew of Arthur Franke, first met Mr. Martin at the family farm in Uvalde, TX when he was 10 years old. Stuart remembers he and Mr. Martin plying with fireworks, and his fascination with Mr. Martin’s vast knowledge.
During the summer between high school and college, Stuart worked full-time at the new Medina plant on Highway 90 west of Hondo. He spent many hour visiting with Mr. Martin, learning all he could from the practical inventor. Stuart effectively became Mr. Martin’s protégé. In the summers to follow, he would travel to Arizona and throughout the Texas countryside with Mr. Martin, collecting raw materials and talking for hours on end.
Stuart encountered many difficult challenges while attending college at nearby Texas A&I University as an engineering major. What he had learned form Mr. Martin - and what he had seen work with his own eyes - went against most viewpoints taught in the classroom. When he questioned teachers about alternative science, he was soundly rejected. But these lessons proved valuable to Stuart when years later he became President of the Median company. He learned that even in since, there is no single correct answer, but rather a variety of alternatives to choose from.
The Difficult Road To Success
Arthur Franke, Stuart Franke, Floyd Lillard and James Martin developed a close business and personal relationship as the years drew on. The three older men were all shareholders in the growing company, and all shared common interests.
To avoid tax problems, Martin asked to be taken off the payroll and opted to be paid as a consultant. A back injury forced the senior Franke to retire form farming, which allowed him to devote his full attention to Medina. Arthur and Floyd were aware that Mr. Martin would discuss his invention with anyone who would listen, but they were assured by Mr. Martin that only Medina had the most complete formula. In the years since Martin’s death, others have tried to duplicate the product, but have come up short of developing the sophisticated blend made by Mr. Martin and Medina.
In 1973, Medina was the subject of unfavorable publicity by Texas A&M University. A&M had agreed to test the product, but according to the Medina company, did not follow application and mixing procedures. Publication of the less-than-favorable results severely crippled the small company, which didn’t have the financial or political resources to properly respond. Many loyal farm customers felt Medina was wrongly used as and example - or whipping post - to keep "snake oil" type products off the market. Because of Medina’s growing public profile, and because of the "odd" nature of the product in the hey-day of chemical fertilizers, Medina was a likely target of academic scrutiny.
After the release of the A&M Bulletin, Medina quietly went about their business of manufacturing natural soil conditioners for farmers. While sales were substantially reduced, a core group of loyal users continued to support the company, and continued to grow abundant crops with healthy soils. Sales were made by word of mouth, just like in the early days, without benefit of expensive advertising campaigns or glamorous product brochures. The company managed to survive, without deviating form their earnest goal of helping people revitalize their soils.
Medina’s history is long and colorful, checkered with stories of successes and rejections. What began as an inventory’s dream in the 1950’s has been transformed into a growing company with a family of "smart" products. James Martin, Arthur Franke, and Floyd Lillard helped pioneer the development of biological products nearly 30 years before their potential was understood by the public. Today, under the leadership of Stuart Franke, the company continues to refine and enhance Mr. Martin’s biological wonder, while finding new markets and applications that can benefit from its use.