Chapter 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.

Picture below shows our Field Secretary at a 3½ year old tree which by
its sturdy trunk and spreading head shows the advantages of our
thorough cultivation and Medium Height Pruning System.
]

“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.

In one of our 3½ year old orchards, showing sturdy trunks and heavy
heads.
]

Our Investors Are Found All Over The World

A 3½ YEAR OLD TREE on our plantation. Observe the massive trunk, the
sturdy limbs, the great spread of nut bearing branches.
]

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

Sturdy main branches, resulting from our Keystone System of Pruning.
]

=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.

The home of our Assistant Horticulturist—shaded by the big bearing
pecan trees.
]

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.

A plantation house of the Keystone Pecan Company on its Calhoun County
Orchard Plantation. From left to right: Elam G. Hess, President of
the Company; M. G. Esbenshade, Secretary and Treasurer; and Thos. F.
Miller, Sales Manager.
]

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]

=First.= That the Company is financially strong—a $215,000 corporation, which received its charter in 1911 from the Superior Court of Georgia. Subsequent to the incorporation, the Company purchased what its officers believed to be the finest plantation in Calhoun County for the growth and development of Paper Shell Pecans. The plantation with recent additions, all located around Albany, Georgia, totals nearly 7,400 acres of land, which has been or is to be planted to pecans. From the date of the purchase the Company has expended large sums of money annually upon the development of the property and each passing year sees a greater expenditure upon property development and permanent property improvement. Latest approved methods are sought and applied; and notwithstanding all this the Calhoun County Plantation is subject to a lien of only twenty-seven thousand dollars, the Dougherty County Plantation to only five thousand dollars, the Mitchell County Property to only ten thousand dollars. For the purpose of safeguarding the unit owners a special trustee was appointed whose duty it is to see that the company’s receipts from orchard sales are appropriated to the development of the orchards sold, the planting of new orchards and the reduction of the lien until the same shall have been extinguished entirely. This result will be achieved before the Company shall have conveyed one-half of its orchards—a unique record among modern business concerns. The Trustee plan was specially devised for the protection of Unit buyers, and we know of no Company that has devised a safer plan. It is the result of the most careful consideration given in the interest of the unit buyer. When you are safe, we are safe also.

The books of the Keystone Pecan Co. are audited quarterly by Certified Public Accountants, Vollum, Fernley & Vollum, of Philadelphia, New York and Chicago.

=Second. That the orchards are under capable supervision.= The active officers of the Company were close students of pecan growing for years previous to 1911.

Realizing the fact that the making of profits depends in part on the skill of the orchardist, the Company has employed educated, practical horticulturists who have large pecan groves of their own, where they earned reputations as orchardists that secured them highest recommendations of well known authorities. The fact that such men accepted positions with the Keystone Pecan Company is a tribute to the possibilities of these plantations.

For resident plantation managers they chose pecan men of excellent reputation, who had demonstrated exceptional ability in handling the problem in all its phases.

=Third. That the Company has the character of soil, the kind of budded trees, and the shipping facilities needed to fill the demand for better grade pecans which comes from all over America and abroad.= The immediate district in which our plantations are located is the natural home of the pecan. We have an excellent warehouse site on the Central of Georgia Railroad, at Bermuda Station, a passenger station and warehouse on the Dougherty County Plantation, and all portions of our plantations are favorably located for shipping.

=Fourth.= The Company has demonstrated also that its management is capable and efficient. Every one is interested heartily in the success of the orchards. All are men of unquestioned honor and ability; as inquiry in their home cities will prove. They are, as the following pages show, men old enough and experienced enough to capably manage the business, yet young enough to retain their business capacity and vigor for many years to come.

=Fifth.= That a marketing organization has been developed which has successfully sold paper shell pecans all over the world, and that the demand for these superior pecans far exceeds the supply.

“The Supply Will Never Equal The Demand”

_From the former President of the Albany, Ga., Chamber of Commerce_,
J. A. Davis, we hear: “The strongest evidence of my belief in the
future of this wonderful development is that I have just planted a
grove of one hundred acres. I know of no agricultural or
horticultural industry which, with proper attention, holds promise
of returns half so large as the pecan in Southwest Georgia. Both our
soil and our climate are peculiarly adapted for the production of
the finest nuts in most abundant yield. These nuts are the size and
quality which make them absolutely the finest nut on the market.
They will always command a fancy price because the supply will never
equal the demand.”

ELAM G. HESS
]

ELAM G. HESS

President of the Keystone Pecan Company

and Pennsylvania State Vice President of the National Nut Grower’s Association, is a resident of Manheim, Lancaster Co., Pa., and is well and favorably known, not only throughout Lancaster County, but in many parts of America. Mr. Hess, who is forty-three years of age, worked on his father’s farm in Lancaster County until he was eighteen years of age. He taught public school for five years, prepared for college at Perkiomen Seminary, graduating in 1902, and in 1906 graduated from Gettysburg College. He had acted as a traveling salesman during his summer vacations for Underwood & Underwood, New York, and had built such a reputation for fair dealing among the best class of trade that he was appointed field manager, along with Mr. Thomas F. Miller. After serving in this capacity for two years, he was sent to England to represent the same company.

In his travels he was impressed with the opportunities which existed for finer grade pecan nuts, and began to make an exhaustive study of their production and their selling possibilities—one result of which has been the formation of the Keystone Pecan Company.

Mr. Hess devotes his entire time to the success of the Company, and is an acknowledged authority on pecan nuts, their growth and their marketing.

Reference: Keystone National Bank, Manheim, Pa.

L. B. CODDINGTON
]