Part 5

Far-sighted business people are investing in pecan orchards because their investigation proves that the bearing pecan orchard is “=one of the most profitable and permanent of agricultural investments=.” See statement of Luther Burbank, the Edison of Agriculture on page 19.

=Below is a table showing a conservative estimate of the probable yield of an acre orchard unit in this district. The figures are not guaranteed, but are to the best of our knowledge and belief accurate and authentic.=

=The first column in this table refers to the number of years from planting in the orchard units.=

Per tree, based on Average yield per Average Income per average records of tree, nuts at 40c. income unit varieties developed a lb per tree

4th year a few nuts. 5th year 2 to 3 lbs. 2½ lbs. $1.00 $20.00 6th year 4 to 5 lbs. 4½ lbs. 1.80 36.00 7th year 7 to 9 lbs. 8 lbs. 3.20 64.00 8th year 10 to 12 lbs. 11 lbs. 4.40 88.00 9th year 18 to 25 lbs. 21 lbs. 8.40 168.00 10th year 37 to 50 lbs. 43⅓ lbs. 17.33 346.60 15th year 100 to 150 lbs. 125 lbs. 50.00 1,000.00 20th year 150 to 300 lbs. 225 lbs. 90.00 1,800.00

J. R. Pinson, near our Mitchell Co. plantation, reports 685 pounds from 246 trees, an average of 2.8 pounds per tree, in the fifth year.

R. P. Jackson makes affidavit to a yield of 1,056 pounds the fifth year from his 259 pecan trees, or an average of 4¼ pounds per tree.

The Monticello Board of Trade, Monticello, Florida, directs attention to 95 trees of finest paper shell pecans owned by H. C. White, at Putney, Georgia, which bore 380 pounds of nuts in the sixth year.

J. A. Kernodle reports 17 pounds per tree the sixth year from a group of trees.

J. R. Pinson reports a yield of 2,450 pounds from a 13–acre orchard in its seventh year, average of 190 pounds per acre, or 9½ pounds per tree.

B. W. Stone, Ex-President of the National Nut Growers’ Association, reports a yield of 1,300 pounds from 3 acres the eighth year, which figures over 20 pounds average per tree.

I. P. Delmas reports a yield of 9,750 pounds of pecans from his 325 trees in the ninth year, an average of 30 pounds per tree.

T. S. McManus reports 165 pounds of nuts from one tree the tenth year. He states that he can show average yields of 50 to 75 pounds at ten years.

Theo. Bechtel, President of the National Nut Growers’ Association, reports a yield of 100 pounds in the 10th year and of 185 pounds in the 13th year.

B. W. Stone, in his book, “The Pecan Business,” tells of one tree which in its seventh, eighth and ninth year bore an aggregate of 200 pounds of nuts. The same tree bore 106 pounds in its tenth year.

I. P. Delmas reports a yield of 235 pounds of pecans from a tree thirteen years old.

John D. Gunn reports a yield of 268 pounds in a single season from one of his paper shell pecan trees.

3½ Years’ Growth

Henry E. Morton, President of the Morton Mfg. Co., large manufacturers of heavy machinery, Muskegon Heights, Michigan, standing beside a 3½ year old tree on one of the 45 units which he owns on our plantations. Note on page 49 Mr. Morton’s statement that these strong-trunked, heavy-headed trees exceeded his expectations. Note also his comment on the benefits of our Medium Height Pruning System in producing large spreading heads with a great increase in the number of nut bearing branches.

“I firmly believe that commercial pecan growing is one of the most promising horticultural possibilities of the South. There is now a greater demand for all kinds of nuts than ever before, a demand that our growers will not be able to catch up with for years. The pecan is undoubtedly the finest, most nutritious and most delicious of nuts. The world must get her supplies of pecans from us (in the southern section of the United States) and as yet we do not begin to supply the local demands, to say nothing of producing for export.”

W. N. Hutt, Ex-President, American Pomological Society, Ex-President, National Nut Growers Association.

Our Figures are Intentionally Conservative

In recent years the selling price of pecans at the orchard has been more than double the price used in our table. No one can tell how much higher pecan prices may go. On Patrician Pecans—introduced by us in the 1920 season—we have found an exceedingly large demand at $1.50 for a 12–oz. box, which is at the rate of $2.00 a pound, and have received many strong commendations from purchasers. These de luxe pecans have been sold into all sections of the United States—including such southern states as Mississippi, Florida, Texas, etc.—and into Canada, Alaska, France and other foreign countries; not in the 12–oz. package only, but also in 10–lb. cartons and barrel lots.

We are intentionally conservative. We want the investor in our twenty-tree orchard units to be agreeably surprised that the yield is greater and the price secured per pound higher than our table shows. =Our interests and those of the investor are identical—selling an orchard at the low price shown on the application blank (page 71) benefits us little unless the return secured from the gathering and sale of nuts is satisfactory.=

“For the person who is willing to wait a few years there is no more profitable investment than a grove of pecans,” says J. B. Wight, Pecan Nurseryman and Grove Owner.

Under our co-operative plan the investment is reduced to the minimum during the waiting years. As shown by application blank at rear of this book we offer an acre-unit planted with twenty pecan trees of standard varieties on an easy deferred payment plan.

From the moment you put down your first payment, the contract of sale protects you—in the opportunity to reap profits from the constantly increasing yields of pecans when the trees begin to bear, and in the opportunity to gain by the $100 a year increase in value of your acre-unit. For the most authentic information shows that each acre pecan orchard unit increases in value each year at the rate of at least $100.

=Figure it out for yourself=—carefully and conservatively. Though the price now being secured for the nuts is far higher than the price used in the table on page 42, we would rather that you base your comparisons on the figures in that conservative table. The case is strong enough on that basis.

An Increase in Value of $100 per Year per Acre

Mr. E. B. Adams, formerly Secretary of the Albany, Ga., Chamber of Commerce, writes: “Each season the pecan groves enhance in value, it being agreed by eminent pecan authorities that properly cared for pecan groves increase $100 an acre in value each year.”

This is an investment where your principal increases and your income gets larger as the years roll by.

Why Do We Sell Orchard Units?

We can answer that in a few words.

To raise money to establish more pecan orchards.

We must have more finest grade paper shell pecans to meet the increasing demand. America demands more. When this market is supplied—which date seems generations distant—there are limitless opportunities open for export business.

The pecan is a food in demand all year around, yet the constantly increasing supply is exhausted in a few months.

No ordinary increase of plantings would meet the need. Our Co-operative Profit-Sharing Plan is the most direct, most effective solution of the problem.

The opportunity is enormous. To make right use of that opportunity requires large planning and large plantings. We have now four thousand acres of pecan trees planted and growing on our plantations—to establish these, fertilize, cultivate and care for them until bearing would involve an outlay so prodigious that it is good policy for our company to welcome the co-operation of a limited number of unit owners, assuring maximum efficiency on all our acreage at a minimum expense for planting, care, cultivation, gathering crop, marketing nuts, etc.

Our Investors Are Found All Over The World

Far-sighted people, who, after thorough investigation, have invested in Pecan Orchard Units under our co-operative plan, are found in every section of the United States and Canada, and also in many foreign countries, such as Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, the British Isles, South Africa, India, etc.

You will find them from Sanford, Maine, on the East, to Oakland and Lompoc, California, on the West; from Miami, Florida, and El Paso, Texas, on the South, to points as far North as Alaska. In New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia; Pittsburgh, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Jacksonville, New Orleans and other large cities you will find those who are providing for the future by putting their money in Keystone Pecan Orchard Units.

[Sidenote: Investigations on the grounds prove our statements conservative]

The strongest believers in our co-operative orchard proposition are keen business people, with ability to get at the facts, who have visited the plantations themselves, and have seen for themselves our bearing pecan orchards, our nursery, our planted units, their intensive care and cultivation. On their return many have bought additional units—or recommended the investment to their friends. The progress made is so evident that it convinces all who see it.

[Sidenote: We are glad to have you visit the plantations]

Prospective investors and owners of orchard units are welcome any time at the plantations in order that they may see for themselves just what progress has been made and is being made. It is necessary that we shall have undisputed control of the orchard during the first five years—the period when closest cultivation is required—in order that we may make good on our guarantee and turn over to you a successful orchard at the end of that period. But we shall be glad to have you establish a bungalow or cottage on the ground at any time afterward.

A few typical letters from unit owners who have visited the plantation are found on the following pages.

Finds His 45–Acre Orchard Better Than He Expected

=Writes Prominent Manufacturer of Muskegon Heights, Mich.=

Muskegon Heights, Mich., July 15, 1920.

Keystone Pecan Company, Manheim, Pa.

Gentlemen:

Ever since 1917, when I purchased my 45–acre pecan orchard from you, I have been wanting to go to see it, and several times had all arrangements made, but unforeseen events arising suddenly in my business prevented my going until now.

Of course, I satisfied myself before buying that an investment in your pecan orchards is sound and profitable, and I received your reports from time to time showing progress, so that I knew my trees were receiving the best of care and were growing nicely, and yet naturally I wanted to see them. I am happy to say that my orchards were fully as good as reported—the thrifty, strong-trunked, heavy-headed trees are in many respects better than I expected.

Your Medium Height Pruning System has produced wonderful trees. They are developing thick, strong trunks and branches, and large, symmetrical heavy heads. Your thorough cultivation, with tractors, mules, and hoeing around the trees by hand, on every part of the plantation, keeps the soil in the best possible condition to promote growth.

The growth already made shows that your methods produce unusual results.

The foundation idea underlying all your plans seems to be service, and as a manufacturer of many years experience selling to many of the largest concerns in this and other countries, I have learned that service and the application of the Golden Rule are the foundation of all success. All businesses and all persons are measured by the service they render.

My visit to your plantations has shown me that your Company places service always foremost, and that you stand for a square deal. In cultivation and pruning and in every way the trees are treated as individuals and each tree receives individual attention. When the thirty-five hundred acres now planted will have passed through the development years, the Keystone Pecan Groves will be a place of beauty and will be a perennial source of profit to the owners of the units.

I have also visited your offices at Manheim on various occasions, and have found the equipment and organization there fully as complete and as efficient as that on the plantations. I have met several of the directors of the company, all of whom stand high in their communities, and are known as men of honor and ability. Mr. Elam G. Hess, the president of the Company, I have found to be a man of integrity and uprightness in his dealings, who has demonstrated exceptional ability in building up an organization which renders expert and conscientious service to the unit owners.

In my travels I have investigated the pecan market and its possible future. I have tried to buy Paper Shell Pecans in the different cities from Kansas City and Minneapolis, East as far as Boston, but find it is possible to get them during only a few months of the year. The orchards now planted will be able to supply only a small fraction of the demand already existing for these pecans, and with your marketing facilities reaching to all parts of the civilized world, the opportunities in this field are unlimited.

Yours very truly,

HENRY E. MORTON.

Your Extra Efforts Lead to Bigger Results Says Unit Owner From the Klondike

April 21, 1920.

By the time I am back in Dawson, I will have travelled 11,000 miles to visit the Keystone Pecan Plantations. Long as this trip is, what I saw there well repaid me for the effort.

Throughout this district (around Albany) I made inquiry regarding the Keystone Pecan Orchards and heard that your orchards were noted not only for their large size but also for the extra care and cultivation given the trees. The advantage of these high scientific standards and thorough supervision are apparent all over the property. I was pleased to see over a hundred thousand pounds of ground bone meal being put around the trees to fertilize them. It is such extra effort that leads to biggest results.

A. E. Pretty, Dawson, Yukon Territory.

“Our Interests Are in Safe Hands,” Says Rev. George W. Lutz, Unit Owner.

Pennsburg, Pa., June 26, 1919.

Your plantation is large—very large. The soil is real pecan soil. When I saw thousands upon thousands of pecan trees—budded and large bearing trees—in the same kind of soil, on all sides, I no longer asked myself the question whether my units were of soil on which the pecan would grow into a productive and profitable orchard. When I saw the kind of trees you planted—thick-stemmed and healthy trees, and the splendid care given them as regards cultivation and scientific pruning, I was still better satisfied.

But I am convinced, now that I saw it all, that soil, climate, moisture and virile trees, necessary as these are, they are not the whole thing in producing a thrifty pecan orchard. These factors mixed with brains grow the pecan. I congratulate your company, first of all, upon the fact that you have a real executive in your energetic President. Mr. Elam G. Hess. It is this master mind that has planned so wisely and soundly for the future. Every unit holder with whom I have talked has the fullest confidence in his integrity and ability. In my opinion, therefore, the affairs of your company and the interests of the unit owners are absolutely safe in his hands.

Finally, permit me to congratulate you upon your and our good fortune in securing the services of Mr. William P. Bullard as Horticulturist. Mr. Bullard is without a doubt the best-posted pecan man in the country today. He is not a theorist but very practical. A visit to his well-kept bearing orchard and nurseries was a most delightful one. I am absolutely confident that what Mr. Bullard has already done in his own orchard he can accomplish for you and all unit owners—grow a productive and profitable pecan orchard in the shortest possible time.

(Rev.) Geo. W. Lutz.

Well Pleased, Want Entire Block for My Family, Writes California Physician and Food Expert

238 E. 46th St., Los Angeles, Calif., July 6, 1920.

As a food the pecan stands second to no other natural product. During the twenty years in which I have studied food values—and throughout my years of practice as a physician—I have noted the great need for this pure, fresh, easily digested nut as a source of fat and protein.

My visit to my pecan orchards this week showed me that conditions on your plantations are highly satisfactory. Your work in preparation and planting had been most thoroughly done, and the remarkably thrifty condition of the trees shows that they have established good root systems. The wonderful progress made by your trees shows the advantage of your thorough cultivation and scientific pruning. This should mean bigger yields—and bigger profits.

I am well pleased with all I have seen. Please let me know by return mail whether you can give me the entire block on which my units are located for our own immediate family.

A. Robt. Hauter.

Buying 10 More Units—A Good Investment

Fleetwood, Pa., July 14, 1920.

Ritter Hosiery Company.

As I went carefully over your entire pecan plantations during the past week, I have studied with special care the growth made by the trees which are now 1½, 2½ and 3½ years old, for I have orchards of all three of these ages. The growth made by them shows that your methods are right, and I know that your thorough care in cultivation and fertilizing brings about even greater progress for the future. Your methods of pruning my older trees have produced exceptionally sturdy trunks, and heads which show a three-fold increase of nut bearing branches.

I am perfectly satisfied with the progress you are making and the fact that I have just bought ten additional units is proof that I consider the investment a good one.

Frank R. Ritter.

An Ideal Southern Home

Practically every thoughtful man looks forward to the time when he may have a home where the winter rigors of the Northern climate shall not sap his vitality. No one need apologize for this longing—or consider it a sign of lack of vigor or backbone.

For the tendency toward establishing a home in the South is not based alone on this desire for an agreeable, equable climate. It is founded on sound economic principles.

Where Winter Does Not Consume What the Summer Produces

In the North, the winter consumes the food which the summer produces. In the fertile sections of Southern Georgia a succession of crops, properly planned, makes the whole year productive.

Vegetation is so rapid that in a few years a home is surrounded by a growth of trees, shrubbery and growing crops.

Government statistics show a surprisingly slight variation between Winter and Summer in Southern Georgia. Here there is no enervating humidity compared to that found in the Northern and Central Atlantic States.

Here is the ideal home—“Where the sun shines bright and the meadow’s in bloom”—where good fishing and hunting abound—where the call of the “Bob White” is heard from September to March—where the outdoor life is the natural, healthful life the year round.

Here, with the fine southern town of Albany only a short distance away, with fine roads extending roundabout in all directions, you may live on a typical plantation. While Nature, soil and sun combine to produce profitable crops on the pecan trees which have been turned over to you a thrifty orchard, you may fish, boat or swim on the beautiful Lake Marcelia—a twenty-five acre lake right on your plantation.

We expect eventually to erect a club house or hotel on the banks of the lake, where unit owners may be accommodated should they wish to spend their vacation here hunting and fishing.

When you live amid such surroundings you really live. The country all about is so attractive that many a man in the North would be glad to pay $650 or $750 for an acre on which to build a southern home. If he planted on that acre only enough pecan trees to yield an average income of $45 per year, he would have six per cent. interest from his money. One tree should yield more than $30 per year, on an average, from the tenth to the twentieth year from planting. Why be satisfied with a single tree when there is room for twenty trees and a small bungalow on your acre?

Office of the Clerk, District Court, Boulder County, Col.

Boulder, Colorado, June 26, 1919.

I have lived many years in Colorado and have been in close contact with the agricultural development of the west. I have long believed that Walnut growing in California was one big opportunity. During the past two weeks I have visited your plantation in Georgia and have travelled over it from end to end. Since that visit I am more thoroughly convinced than ever that you have the finest nut growing proposition in this country.

The wonderful way in which I found the trees growing on the ten orchard units which I had previously bought has led me to purchase more units, and I expect to buy still more later.

You have the soil, the climate and the organization to produce successful pecan groves.

Fred. W. Burger.

Investigate The Company And Its Management

Because the most conservative statement of yield from our pecan units sounds too good to be true, we have found that it was necessary to urge prospective purchasers to investigate every phase of the company.

For this reason, the men who have invested most largely are always the men most capable of getting at the real facts—and acting on their own knowledge—manufacturers, merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, dentists, salesmen, accountants, teachers, preachers, farmers and others of the most intelligent classes are becoming owners of orchard units because their investigation has shown:

[Sidenote: Why your investment is secure]