[Illustration:
SIXTEEN big pecan nuts on a single small lower branch of one tree in
our big, bearing orchard on our Calhoun County Orchard Plantation.
This picture, in natural colors, from a photograph taken in late
September, 1919, gives an idea of the prodigious number of nuts that
a single large, bearing tree will yield.
]
Paper Shell Pecans
[Illustration]
The first quarter of the east front of our bearing pecan orchard. As far
as the eye can see, stretch row after row of fine, big pecan trees
(compare with man for size); many of which have borne over two hundred
pounds in a single season.
What better evidence could you wish of the adaptability of soil and
climate to pecan growing?
_All illustrations of pecan trees in this book were made from
photographs taken on our plantations of over 7000 acres in southwest
Georgia—where pecans thrive best._
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Economic Value of the Pecan, 4, 10, 14, 15
Right Foods—The Increasing Demand, 5
Less Animal Flesh—More Pecan Meat, 5, 6, 16
Shall We Cease to Eat Meat?, 7, 8
Nut Meat Gives Fat and All Needed Protein, 9
Nuts a Staple Necessary Food, 11
Nuts Versus Beefsteak, 12
Nuts, the Safer Source of Protein, 13
Grow Pecans—the Ideal Fat Food, 14
Twenty Times as Much Food Per Acre, 15
The Finer the Nut the Greater the Demand, 17, 18, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
The Pecan—the Year Round Nut, 18
What Is the Paper Shell Pecan?, 19, 21
The Hardiest of All Nut Trees, 20
Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34
Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans Please All Who Eat Them, 25, 26, 27, 28
We Have Sold Tons of Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans, 24
Nuts Meet the Demand for Uncooked Food, 30
Maximum Food Value in Condensed Form, 32
More Pecan Orchards—A Vital Necessity, 35
How Pecan Trees do Grow (Illustrated), 22, 36, 43, 45
Our Co-operative, Profit-Sharing System, 37, 38, 39, 40
Service—Which Builds Productive Orchards, 41
Each Acre-Unit Increases in Value $100.00 a Year, 46
Units Fully Paid in Case of Death, 70
One of the Safest Industries—the Profit is O. K., 42
Yield of Orchard Units, 42
Our Investors All Over the World, 48
Letters from Owners Who Visited Our Plantation, 49, 50, 52, 59
An Ideal Southern Home, 51, 52
Investigate the Company—Its Management and Its Officers, 53 to 65
No Investment Could Be Safer, 66, 67
Who Should Invest, 67, 68
Application Blank, 69, 70
A Few of the Noted Authorities and References
Government Statistics.
U. S. Congressional Records, 4, 5, 10, 30, 38
Alabama Dept. of Agriculture, 4
U. S. Census Bureau, 5, 6, 16, 30
President Wilson, 5
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 57
U. S. Food Administration, 8
Famous Food Authorities.
Dr. Graham Lusk, 7, 13
Physical Culture Mag., 8, 13
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, 8
Dr. Gordon J. Saxon, 8
Dr. J. H. Kellogg, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 26, 30
Professor Cajori, of Yale, 11
Dr. Hoobler, Detroit, 11, 15
Alfred W. McCann, 13
Inter-Allied Scientific Food Commission, 13
Dr. Elmer Lee, 26
Prominent Magazines Quoted.
Literary Digest, 8
Good Health, 8, 11, 13, 14
Journal of the American Medical Association, 11
Noted Agricultural Authorities.
Luther Burbank, 4, 19, 26, 67
American Nut Journal, 19
Field Illustrated, 7
Prof. H. Harold Hume, 9
Prof. Henry, of Wisconsin Univ., 14
E. Lee Worsham, 18, 21
Copyright, 1921, Elam G. Hess, Manheim, Pa., Issued Jan., 1921.
[Illustration:
The above photographic illustration shows a big, bearing pecan tree on
our plantation, near the house. For size, compare with the men shown
in the foreground.
]
FOREWORD
=Food is the need of the day—of every day.=
=Food is the need of the future.=
=From the beginning of the world food production= has been the most
important of the activities of man—but food production has frequently
taken uneconomic channels. Even before the war in Europe started, the
tendency toward changing standards in food production was marked.
In one of America’s leading periodicals, we read: “=Tree crops is the
next big thing in farming=,” says J. Russel Smith, after =an 18,000–mile
journey through the nut growing countries=.
The man who is alert to changing food standards, who realizes how
largely the cattle herds of the world have been depleted during the
World War, who has learned how long it will be before they can be built
up, will see in this condition an opportunity paralleled only in a small
way by the noted investment opportunities of the past.
About a hundred years ago the =railroad= offered an investment
opportunity which the Vanderbilts were wise enough to see—and to
seize. You know that the Vanderbilt wealth has lasted through
generations—increasing year by year.
About fifty years ago there was a similar opportunity offered in
=steel=—demanded by the rapidly growing industries. The names of
Carnegie and Schwab head the list of the famous “thousand steel
millionaires”—made rich by foresight.
Forty years ago =electricity= offered its opportunities to Edison—and to
many others who have become extremely wealthy because they combined
courage with foresight.
Marvelous as have been the fortunes in =railroads=, in =steel= and in
=electricity=, we are today, says the Luther Burbank Society in its
book, “Give the Boy a Chance,” “facing an opportunity four hundred times
bigger than the railroad opportunity was a hundred years ago, eight
hundred times bigger than electricity offered at its inception, fifteen
hundred times bigger than the steel opportunity which Mr. Carnegie
found—=because agriculture is just by these amounts bigger than those
other industries=.”
From land—the most permanent basis of wealth—immense fortunes of today
and tomorrow are being drawn. America is beginning to see a new
vision,—its agriculture is taking a newer, more profitable form.
=What is the Biggest Future in Agriculture?= When James J. Hill staked
his all in apples and received in return a profit estimated at ten
million dollars—he was merely a pioneer in the new type of farming.
Yet the pecan comes into bearing as early as the apple orchard and
remains in bearing many times as long, says Bulletin No. 41, of the
Alabama Department of Agriculture.
It is particularly significant that the strongest advocates of tree
agriculture are those familiar with conditions in nut growing countries.
Consider that fact in connection with this statement of Luther Burbank,
the Edison of Agriculture: “=Paper Shell Pecans of the improved
varieties are the most delicious, as well as the most nutritious nuts in
the world. They are higher in food value than any other nuts, either
native or foreign.=”
In a prominent agricultural weekly we read: “The tree that yields a
pound or two of nuts at five years of age is counted upon for twenty to
fifty pounds by the tenth year, and after that the yield grows beyond
anything known in fruit trees, because the Pecan at maturity is a forest
giant.”
In the face of such facts, is it not wise to consider carefully the
interesting facts on Paper Shell Pecans found within?
=ELAM G. HESS, Manheim, Lancaster County, Pa.=
=Keystone Pecan Orchard =President Keystone Pecan Company=
Plantations=
=in Southwest Georgia—Calhoun, =Pennsylvania State Vice President
Dougherty, Lee and Mitchell of National Nut Growers
Counties= Association=
“_Pecan production is destined to become one of the most important lines
of orchard development in the United States._”—Cong. Record of the
United States, p. 1101, Vol. 54.
Right Foods—The Increasing Demand
No matter what may happen, the demand for nourishing foods is sure to
grow so long as the population increases. Railroads, steel,
electricity—all are recent developments, none of them indispensable to
mankind. =But existence itself depends on nourishing foods.=
“Then,” you say, “no business should be surer than that of supplying
food to the growing population of America.”
Correct, provided you supply the right food.
[Sidenote: Food standards are changing]
For food standards are changing. Prove that fact, if you will, by the
figures of the U. S. Census Bureau for the years 1900 and 1910, a period
unaffected by the World War.
During that period the population of the United States increased from
75,091,575 to 91,972,266—an increase of virtually 22–3⁄10 per cent.
Therefore, the production of any foodstuffs should increase by the same
percentage during that period to provide for the same consumption per
capita.
[Sidenote: Less beef, less pork, more nut meat]
Has the consumption of beef increased during that period? Apparently
not—for there were 8.7 per cent. less cattle on the farms in 1910 than
in 1900. Nor was there any material increase in imports. That there was
not a corresponding increase in the price of beef during this period, is
indicated by the fact that the value of all cattle on American farms
increased only 1.6 per cent. between 1900 and 1910—an increase only
one-fourteenth as great as the increase in population.
There was a loss of 7.4 per cent. in the number of swine on American
farms and a decrease of 14.7 per cent, in the number of sheep—the
inevitable result of which loss while population was increasing to the
extent of 22–3⁄10 per cent. was an increase in price per pound in pork,
ham, bacon, mutton, etc., which automatically cut off a large part of
the demand.
[Sidenote: A loss of twenty-nine pounds per capita on animal flesh]
When urging the necessity for close study of the food problem, President
Wilson pointed out the fact that during a ten-year period there had been
a loss of 29 pounds of animal flesh per capita per year. With such a
record it is obvious that some foods to replace meats must be found.
Why Spend Millions For Imported Nuts?
“We are annually importing between 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 pounds
of nuts at a cost of between $12,000,000 and $13,000,000, while we
export nuts worth less than a half million dollars. _Why should we
spend millions of dollars each year in buying nuts from foreign
countries, when we can grow the pecan, the equal of any other nut,
either native or foreign, in unlimited quantities?_”—Congressional
Record of the United States, Vol. 54, No. 27.
Poultry Gains Fail to Equal Increase of Population
Poultry was the only exception among meats to this history of
diminishing supply, increased prices and diminishing demand. Yet the
gain in the number of all fowls on American farms was only 17 per cent.,
while the population was increasing 22.3 per cent. The American
production of nut foods was increasing 55.7 per cent. in the same period
without beginning to meet the demand.
Though the increase in value of the American nut crop was 128.1 per
cent., still the increase in consumption required an increase in imports
so great that in 1910 America was supplying only one-fourth of the nuts
it was eating; while in 1900 it supplied half.
Government figures, taken from a leading nut publication, show that
in 1900 the value of nuts imported into the United States was
$3,484,651. By 1910 it had risen to $12,775,196, which is 365% of
1900 importations, although the population of the United States
increased only 22.3% during that ten-year period.
In 1919 there were $57,499,044 worth of nuts imported, which is 450%
of the importations in 1910, although the 1920 census shows an
increase of only 15% in population since 1910. Nut importations in
1919 are 1650% of those in 1900, while population increased only 40%
between 1900 and 1920.
We see, therefore, that there is a gain in nut importations between
1900 and 1910 twelve times as great as the gain in population; that
the later increase is so great that this gain between 1900 and 1919
is 39 times as great as the increase in population. Surely this is
conclusive evidence of the great increase in nut consumption in the
United States, when we remember how greatly the American nut crop
was increasing during this period.
[Sidenote: Nut consumption increases thirty-nine times as greatly as
population]
These authentic figures astonish even the man who has learned by
experience that “=nut meat is the real meat=” of greatest food value;
for they show what great number of his fellow countrymen have proved
their belief in the same fact. The man who has looked upon nuts as a
holiday diet alone, cannot fail to see his error, when he realizes that
this increase in the importation of nut meats in 1919 compared to 1900
is nearly nine times as great as the increase in population; despite the
largely increasing American production.
Higher education in food values has led people to realize the necessity
for different and more varied diet—and this educational development has
been facilitated also by economic conditions.
[Sidenote: The public forced to cut down on animal flesh—grazing land
scarcer]
As population increases, land becomes more valuable. As land becomes
more valuable—intensive farming is practiced. Grazing becomes virtually
impossible under such conditions; and, despite all the efforts of the
Department of Agriculture experts, cattle raising is pushed farther and
farther from the large centers of population. Increased transportation
and costs of refrigeration mean increased meat prices—even the
importation of large quantities of South American beef between 1910 and
1914, for instance, failed to keep meat at a price low enough so that it
could constitute the large food element which it once was on the
American table.
“Shall We Cease to Eat Meat?”
[Sidenote: Available supply of pork, beef and mutton shrinking]
asks Field Illustrated for March, 1919. A question of great
significance, from a publication of unquestioned leadership on
scientific cattle breeding. A question graphically illustrated by this
self-explanatory chart.
[Illustration]
OUR AVAILABLE MEAT SUPPLY (PER
INDIVIDUAL)
IN 1880 WAS
HOGS CATTLE SHEEP
1 7⁄10 7⁄10
IN 1900
8⁄10 9⁄10 6⁄10
IN 1917
6⁄10 6⁄10 ½
SHALL WE CEASE TO EAT MEAT
OR DRINK MILK
OR WEAR WOOLEN CLOTHES
Copyright 1919, Field Illustrated
Field Illustrated shows that, the country over, it takes an average of
three acres to support a single full grown cow through the summer season
alone. It shows that wheat is the great competitor of the meat crop,
that wheat has driven livestock from the western ranges, and that during
the past four years wheat has been driving the dairy cows and the beef
steer from the eastern and middle western farms.
[Sidenote: Animals must not compete with human beings for cereal foods]
“Whenever there is pressure for food,” concludes Field Illustrated, “and
animals must compete with humans for the cereal products of the fields,
then animals are pretty likely to lose out. =An acre of corn will feed
ten times as many people in the form of Johnny Cakes as it would if
converted into meat.=”
This statement is in striking accord with the conclusions reached by
Graham Lusk, one of the two American representatives to the Inter-Allied
Scientific Food Commission, who wrote in December, 1918, “=It is,
therefore, axiomatic that in times of scarcity one must not give to pigs
food which can nourish human beings.=” For further data, see pages 14
and 15.
Why America Must Eat Less Animal Flesh
The call of the United States Food Administration for =meatless days=,
for =porkless days= and for =every day a fat saving day=, taught a
lesson that America will never forget.
[Sidenote: Americans use twice as much animal flesh as any European
nation]
Food experts have for years emphasized the fact that Americans eat too
much animal flesh. Physical Culture says:
“About forty per cent. of our American bill of fare is of animal
origin. In England the percentage is but twenty per cent. of the
total food, in Continental Europe it is less, and in Japan it is not
more than five per cent. Yet the Japanese have astounded the world
in every test of endurance.”
[Sidenote: Excessive in cost, wasteful, and the cause of illness]
“‘The American soldier is eating 100 per cent. too much meat,’ said
the world famous Dr. Wiley; while Dr. Gordon J. Saxon, director of
the laboratory for cancer of the Oncologic Hospital, Philadelphia,
was quoted by the Philadelphia North American as ascribing the
wonderful resistive powers of the French soldiers to the fact that
they lived on a meagre supply of high protein foods, like animal
flesh, and were given an abundance of fats and carbohydrates. He
laid stress on the excessive cost of our American diet with its high
‘animal intake,’ and this was also emphasized by the booklet, ‘War
Economy in Food,’ issued by the U. S. Food Administration, which
characterized animal flesh as the most expensive of staple foods in
proportion to food value.”
[Sidenote: Fat is needed; securing it through eating animal flesh is the
source of trouble]
Americans are just learning that the cause of most of their bodily
ailments is the securing of fat by eating animal flesh. As the Literary
Digest well says in its March 9th, 1918, issue:
“_Fats are chiefly valuable as fuel for the body. But in addition to
being consumed and turned to energy, fats are also readily stored
away by the body, alongside muscle and bone; as a reserve in times
of illness or physical exertion._
Chief among the functions of protein is its importance as a builder
of bodily tissues. It is structural. The part it plays is like that
of iron in a locomotive.”
Once built, the body, like the locomotive, needs only sufficient
building material (protein) to rebuild wornout portions; but it needs
motive material (fat) in far greater proportion. =Yet high animal flesh
diet=, which has been the American custom, =puts into the system a far
greater amount of protein than is needed and too little fat=. The system
cannot absorb this excess protein, and sluggishness, intestinal
derangements, autointoxication and flesh-borne diseases are the
inevitable result.
[Sidenote: Fat is essential to withstand exposure]
“=Fat is fuel for Fighters=,” said the U. S. Food Administration. It
urged civilians to avoid waste of fats because fats are necessary to
those who must withstand extremes of climate, stand in water-soaked
trenches and indulge in extreme physical activity.
[Sidenote: Two to four ounces daily are needed]
As Good Health for March, 1918, pointed out, “=Fats are fuel foods! The
daily requirement is two to four ounces.=”
There is a way to get this required quantity of fat without the
excessive protein intake which is the inevitable result of our high
animal flesh diet. By following this plan America can multiply its
industrial efficiency, and benefit the physical welfare of all.
Nut Meat Gives Fat and all Needed Protein
In his speech to the National Nut Growers’ Association, at Biloxi,
Mississippi, Dr. Kellogg emphasized the necessity for fuel foods and the
need for less proteins and albumens. He said:
[Sidenote: Nut production destined to exceed animal industry]
“To nuts, then, we must look for the future sustenance of the
race.... Half a century hence the nut crop will far exceed in volume
and in value our present animal industry.”
He emphasizes the fact that all experiments have proved that “Nut
protein is the best of all sources upon which the body may draw for
its supplies of tissue building material,” while at another point he
adds, “On account of their high fat content they are the most highly
concentrated of all natural foods.” At great length, he compares the
ease of assimilation of nut fats with that of the other source of
fat, and concludes, “nut fats are far more digestible than animal
fats.”
[Sidenote: Pecans supply the proper ratio of fat and protein]
Necessity is the mother of invention. If America had utilized in the
past its full opportunities to grow pecans—the best of all nuts in high
fat content with the perfect ratio of protein—we could have shipped to
our soldiers abroad the nourishment most needed in most condensed form,
protected from all contamination and free from all putrefactive
bacteria. It would require approximately a tenth of the cargo space and
would need no refrigeration. It would require no cooking; could be
munched on the march, and would be assimilated more readily than animal
fats and proteins.
[Sidenote: The public is changing from animal fats]
It requires but a glance at any newspaper or magazine to realize that
vegetable fats are taking the place of animal fats—and that the source
of virtually all the new products along this line is nut oil, peanuts
and cocoanuts being the largest sources of supply to date. Our 1915
Pecan Book quoted Prof. H. Harold Hume, then State Horticulturist of
Florida, Glen St. Mary, Fla., as saying:
“According to analysis, the Pecan is richer in fat than any other
nuts—70 per cent. of the kernel is fat. The pecan may at some time
be in requisition as a source of oil—an oil which would doubtless be
useful for salad purposes—but it is never likely to be converted
into oil until the present prices of nuts are greatly reduced.”
Since then pecan prices have had a decided tendency to increase because
the demand is growing more rapidly than the supply; and the chances of
the pecan being used for oil are more remote than ever. Yet one of the
great reasons for the increase in demand is increasing public knowledge
of the pecan and its wonderful food value. For the pecan is proved
richer in fat than any other nut, with the right proportion of easily
assimilated protein, and free from any irritating membrane such as makes
some nuts difficult of digestion by those who have weak stomachs.
Nut Meat is Superior to Animal Flesh
Nut meat is Nature’s food product for supplying fats and proteins,
superior in every way to animal flesh. Dr. Kellogg, of the Battle Creek
Sanitarium, said:
“Nuts are rich in fat and protein. On account of their high fat
content they are the most highly concentrated of all natural foods.
_A pound of nuts contains on an average more than 3,000 calories or
food units, double the amount supplied by grains, four times as much
as average meats and ten times as much as average fruits or
vegetables._”
For example, according to Jaffi’s table, ten different kinds of our
common nuts contain on an average 20.7% of protein, 53% of fat, and 18%
of carbohydrate. Among all nuts the pecan has the largest percentage of
fat and the best balanced proportion of protein, analysis showing 12%
protein, 70% fat, and 18% carbohydrate.
Meat (round steaks) gives 19.8% of protein and 15.6% of fat, with no
carbohydrate. =A pound of average nuts contains the equivalent of a
pound of beefsteak and, in addition, nearly a pound of butter and a
third of a loaf of bread.= The nut is, in fact, a sort of vegetable
meat. Its composition is much the same as that of fat meat, only it is
in much more concentrated form.
Knowing that the nut is a highly concentrated food, the question
naturally arises, can the body utilize the energy stored in nuts as
readily as that supplied by meat products?
[Sidenote: Nut meat is readily digestible]
The notion that nuts are difficult of digestion has really no foundation
in fact. The idea is probably the natural outgrowth of the custom of
eating nuts at the close of a meal when an abundance, more likely a
superabundance of highly nutritious foods has already been eaten, and
the equally injurious custom of eating nuts between meals. Neglect of
thorough mastication must also be mentioned as a possible cause of
indigestion following the use of nuts.
“=The fat of nuts exists in a finely divided state, and in chewing of
nuts a fine emulsion is produced so that nuts enter the stomach in a
form best adapted for prompt digestion=,” says Dr. Kellogg.
Pecans Furnish The Balanced Ration
“_The pecan is a nut of immense economic value._ The pecan furnishes
practically a balanced ration. It is a highly concentrated and
highly nutritious food. _Compared with round steak, it contains
one-twelfth as much water, two-thirds as much protein, from four to
six times as much fat and has between three and four times as great
fuel value._
_Pecans contain most of the elements essential to the building of
the frame and body tissues._ The food value of pecans is rapidly
becoming generally recognized, and it will not be long before the
pecan will be extensively used not only as a substitute for certain
classes of food, such as meats, but also a substitute for food of
all classes.”—U. S. Congressional Record, Jan. 12, 1917.
Nuts—A Staple, Necessary Food
[Sidenote: Long valued for diabetics—a good food for all]
“There are abundant indications,” says the Journal of the American
Medical Association for September 21, 1918, “that nuts, which have long
found a valued place in the dietary of the diabetic without detriment to
his health, will grow in popularity as foods for the well.”
[Sidenote: “Not luxuries—but among the most nutritive of foods”]
“The exigencies of war time have emphasized anew those properties of
nuts as foods which remove them from the category of luxuries and place
them on the list of substantial components of the day’s ration,” it adds
in its editorial comments on the experiments of Professor Cajori, of
Yale University. “It should be remembered,” it states, “that bulk for
bulk they (nuts) belong among the most nutritive foods ordinarily
available.”
Opposing the prejudice that nuts are difficult of digestion, it adds,
“=Cajori’s studies lead him to the conclusion that if nuts are eaten
properly and used in the diet as are eggs, meats and other foods rich in
protein, they have a physiological value on a par with that of staple
articles=.” Only in the case of the chestnut—because of its large starch
content—was cooking desirable.
Commenting upon this article, Good Health Magazine for January, 1918,
says: “=For nearly half a century we have advocated the use of nuts as a
staple element of the dietary of man=.”
As Good Health points out, these conclusions of Professor Cajori are in
harmony with the suggestions of the United States Food Administration
that nuts “should be counted as part of the necessary food and not eaten
as an extra.” “We are led to believe,” adds Good Health, “that the
occasional indigestion following injudicious eating of cheese and nuts
is probably often due to forgetting that they are very substantial
foods, and eating them at the end of an already substantial meal.”
[Sidenote: Ideal food for nursing mothers]
The experiments of Dr. Hoobler, of Detroit, Michigan, in the Woman’s
Hospital and Infant’s Home, showed that for nursing mothers a diet
consisting largely, 50%, of nuts, was far superior to any other dietary,
and in every particular giving nearly 15% greater flow of milk, with 30%
greater food value, and that the mothers took the diet readily and
enjoyed it. (Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug. 12,
1917.)
[Illustration:
THE SECOND QUARTER of the east front of our big, bearing orchard. To
realize the immense size of this orchard, add to this picture the
trees on page one, and remember that these together show only
one-half of one side of this orchard.
]
Nuts Versus Beefsteak
[Sidenote: Animal flesh supplies too much protein for bodily needs]
“Beefsteak has become a fetish with many people; but the experiments
of Chittenden and others have demonstrated that the amount of
protein needed by the body daily is so small that it is scarcely
possible to arrange a bill of fare to include flesh foods _without
making the protein intake excessive_. This is because the ordinary
foodstuffs other than meat contain a sufficient amount of protein to
meet the needs of the body. Nuts present their protein in
combination with so large a proportion of easily digestible fat that
there is comparatively little danger of getting an excess,” states
Dr. Kellogg.
“_In face of vanishing supply of animal flesh it is most comforting
to know that meats of all sorts may be safely replaced by nuts not
only without loss, but with a decided gain_,” he adds.
Among the other advantages of nuts and animal flesh which Dr. Kellogg
cites are the freedom from waste products such as uric acid, urea,
carmine, etc., which cause so many human ills.
Nuts are clean, sweet and aseptic, free from putrefactive bacteria;
while ordinary flesh foods contain three to thirty million putrefactive
bacteria per ounce.
[Sidenote: Nuts—clean, sweet and pure—do not deteriorate like animal
flesh]
Nuts are free from trichinæ, tape worm and parasites, and from the
possibility of carrying specific disease which is always present with
animal flesh. “=Nuts=,” says Dr. Kellogg, “=are in good health when
gathered and remain so till eaten=.”
Nuts—The Safer Source of Protein
[Sidenote: Why add to your load the burden of the tired steer?]
“Beefsteak has a certain food value,” says Good Health for January,
1919, “though far less than is generally attributed to it, =but in
addition it embodies toxic elements, waste products from the animal’s
body, contained in the venous blood, always poisonous, which gives the
beefsteak its red color=.”
“These elements are muscle poisons and brain poisons. They cause fatigue
in the animal from which they are derived and in the man who eats them.”
“An experiment by the late Victor Horsley, a London surgeon, proved that
in concentrated form these poisons completely paralyze the brain cells.”
[Sidenote: “Do we need meat?” asks Alfred W. McCann, famous food
authority]
“=Do we need meat?=” asks Alfred W. McCann, noted food authority, in
Physical Culture. He answers his own question by pointing to conclusive
proof of Anthony Bassler and others, that the human system cannot
utilize over two ounces of protein a day. Yet four ounces of beefsteak,
roast beef, pork or lamb chops, etc., contain all the protein the system
can utilize, while cereals, milk, eggs, nuts, etc., add to the quantity.
He proves by the figures of former Secretary Houston, of the U. S. Dept.
of Agriculture, and of Dr. Clyde L. King, University of Pennsylvania,
that Americans consume 80 grams of protein daily, compared to 44 grams
for France before the war; 14 grams for Japan; 26 for Russia; 27 for
Austria. He indicts Americans as “Kidneycides,” overtaxing the kidneys
by this excess protein diet, and bringing on constipation, biliousness,
headache, catarrh, rheumatism, etc. He emphasizes the disadvantages of
animal flesh as a source of protein, shows how vegetable sources of
protein are purer and safer.
[Sidenote: “No” answers the world’s most authoritative food body]
The Inter-Allied Scientific Food Commission, the most authoritative food
body ever gathered, “=voted that meat was not a physiological
necessity=.” Dr. Graham Lusk, one of the American Commissioners to that
body, suggests cutting the American meat ration in half. That this is
readily possible is shown by the November, 1919, Monthly Crop Report of
the United States Department of Agriculture. Page 116 gives the annual
average meat consumption in the United States as 179.9 pounds per
capita—while best authorities agree with the statement of Alfred W.
McCann that 91 pounds would be more than ample. Dr. Lusk comments on the
fact that in England “The reduction of meat in the dietary produced no
unfavorable results.”
Grow Pecans—The Ideal “Fat” Food
Dr. Kellogg in an address at Biloxi, October, 1917, said that the
officials of the United States Department of Agriculture foresaw this
condition and the increasing prices for animal flesh over twenty years
ago. Since then the increase of our human population and the decrease of
our animal population has so greatly exceeded their estimated figures
that the question, “=Is meat imperative to complete nutrition?=” has
become an imminent one.
Animal flesh supplies protein and fat. We have shown on page 10 how nuts
supply the necessary fat and protein. Dr. Kellogg emphasizes the fact
that nuts supply proteins of such a character that they render complete
the proteins of cereals and vegetable foods.
“=This discovery is one of the highest importance since it opens a door
of escape for the race from the threatened extinction by starvation at
some future period, perhaps not so very remote=,” adds Dr. Kellogg.
[Sidenote: Nine-tenths of our corn fed to animals]
“From an economic standpoint,” he adds, “the rearing of animals for
food is a monstrous extravagance. According to Professor Henry, Dean
of the Agricultural Department of the University of Wisconsin, and
author of an authoritative work on foods and feeding, one hundred
pounds of food fed to a steer produces less than three pounds of
food in the form of flesh. In other words, we must feed the steer
thirty-three pounds of corn in order to get back one pound of food
in the form of steak. Such an extravagant waste can be tolerated
only so long as it is possible to produce a large excess of
foodstuffs. It is stated, as a matter of fact, that at the present
time scarcely more than ten per cent. of the corn raised in the
United States is directly consumed by human beings. A large part of
it is wasted in feeding to animals. This economic loss has been long
known to practical men, but it has been regarded as unavoidable
since meat has been supposed to be absolutely essential as an
article of food.”
“Think of it,” comments Good Health, for June, 1918, “100 pounds of
perfectly good corn, in exchange for three pounds of beef, _and the
pound of beef when obtained is worth less as a food than a pound of
the original corn_. Ninety-seven pounds wasted just to satisfy a
cultivated appetite, _or appetite based on ignorance_.”
“In view of these facts,” stated Dr. Kellogg, “it is most interesting to
know that =in nuts, the most neglected of all well known food products,
we find the assurance of an ample and complete food supply for all
future time, even though necessity should compel the total abandonment
of all our present forms of animal industry=.”
[Sidenote: Seven or eight million acres of nut trees would supply all
needed fats]
“The planting of seven or eight million acres of nut trees might supply
the whole country with an abundance of fat, so that it would no longer
be necessary to waste corn in feeding to pigs to obtain an inferior
quality of fat,” says Good Health.
[Illustration:
A panoramic view in our large orchards, showing a fraction of one side
which is not illustrated in the other pictures. Can you, looking
forward fifteen years or more, see in this a picture of your own
pecan unit trees sturdy and healthy, their branches thickly covered
with pecans, filling out under the summer sun? The soil is the same,
the climate the same, results should be better with the finer
varieties planted.
]
Twenty Times As Much Food Per Acre
[Sidenote: 3,000,000 calories per acre from nuts; only 150,000 from
beef]
Consider what it would mean if America could take its many million acres
of pasturage and get from each twenty times the food value! Of course,
no thinking man would claim that every acre of pasturage is available
for nut raising; but where the change can be made, that gain is
possible.
As Dr. Kellogg points out, it takes two acres two years to produce a
steer weighing 600 pounds; an average of 150 pounds per year per
acre. The same acre planted to walnut trees would, he states,
produce 100 pounds per tree per year for the first twenty years;
which means 4,000 pounds of nuts from an acre of 40 trees. The food
value of the 150 pounds of steer cannot exceed 150,000 calories or
food units; while the nut meat from the same acre equals 3,000,000
calories in food value. As Dr. Kellogg concludes, “_Twenty times as
much food from the nut trees as from the fattened steer, and food of
the same general character, but of superior quality_.”
As Dr. Kellogg previously pointed out: “=A pound of pecans is worth more
in nutritive value than two pounds of pork chops, three pounds of
salmon, two and a half pounds of turkey or five pounds of veal=.”
While the price of nuts is by some considered high, Dr. Kellogg directs
attention to the fact that “=even at present prices the choicest
varieties of nuts are cheaper than meats if equivalent food values are
compared=.”
[Sidenote: Nuts as a Substitute for milk and eggs]
Experiments by Dr. Hoobler, Detroit, and at Battle Creek Sanitarium,
prove that nuts “=Possess such superior qualities as supplementary or
accessory food that they are able to replace not only meats, but even
eggs and milk=.”
Nut Meat The Real Meat
[Sidenote: Nuts imported 1917, nearly ten times as great as in 1900]
It must be remembered that the period in which the use of nut meat grew
over fifteen times as quickly as the population increased was before the
war conditions made every man consider food values more carefully. Right
up till 1914, the year in which the war in Europe started, there was a
steady increase each year in the production of nuts and the importation
of nuts, yet prices kept soaring on all the better varieties because the
greatly increasing supply failed to keep pace with the increase in
demand.
Though the importation of nuts in 1910 had been valued at over thirteen
million dollars, and this was nearly four times as great as in 1900—it
kept increasing until in 1917 it amounted to nearly thirty-three million
dollars. The importation of nuts in 1917 was nearly ten times as great
as imports for 1900, yet these imports and the increasing American
production failed to meet the demand.
[Sidenote: Pecan nut meat a year-round necessity]
These figures from U. S. Government reports show that any one who
assumes that nuts are a holiday luxury is entirely wrong. That the
public wants nut meat the year round, that the only drawback to a still
greater increase in consumption is the shortage of the supply of fine
nuts is proved by United States Department of Agriculture figures.
When J. C. Cooper wrote in a leading agricultural weekly:
“The demand for walnuts is growing much faster than the supply. We
do not produce in America more than twenty per cent. of what we
consume, and it will take fifty to a hundred years, with all the
encouragement of the nut experts, to raise enough walnuts to supply
the home demand.”
he stated a condition which applies with manifold greater force to the
consumption of pecan nuts.
It is true that the California production of Walnuts doubled during
ten years, while the importation trebled—yet in spite of this
five-fold production English Walnuts constantly increased in price.
Since then the price of walnuts has increased steadily every year,
despite increase of supply until in November, 1918, the price per
pound was 80% higher than at the same time in 1914, according to the
Monthly Crop Report for December, 1918. Yet the 1918 crop was nearly
twice as large as in 1914, according to Statistician H. E. Pastor,
well known as an authority on western crops.
The price of pecans increased 50% on the commonest sorts between 1900
and 1910; and from the December, 1918, Monthly Crop Report we see that
the 1918 price per pound on all pecans was over 38% higher than for
1917; Georgia, which has the largest percentage of paper shell pecans,
showing the highest price per pound.
The Finer The Nut—The Greater The Demand
[Sidenote: Increased demand is for finer nuts]
It is true that in Walnuts a condition has come about as in other
nuts—that the increasing demand is for the finer, higher priced grades.
What are the points of superiority that have led to this great increase
in public demand? Why are old established black walnut trees less
valuable as profit producers than English Walnut trees only a quarter as
old and producing only a fraction of the quantity of nuts?
=First=—Thinness of shell and ability to get out the kernels whole.
=Second=—Superior flavor and food value.
=Third=—Attractiveness in appearance of the nut and of the nut meat when
removed.
=Fourth=—Ease of keeping nuts for longer periods and using them readily.
[Sidenote: Paper Shell Pecans meet every demand]
Now compare the fine Paper Shell Pecan with the English Walnut on every
one of these four points of public demand.
It is contained in a shell so thin that it is easily broken in the hands
without the use of nut crackers. The partitions between the kernels
average as thin as in the English Walnut, and the average person will,
in less time, remove more whole kernels of the Paper Shell Pecan than of
any other nut.
As to flavor and food value let such experts as Luther Burbank answer.
(See Foreword, page 4.) Remember that his answer is certainly unbiased,
for he is a patriotic native of California where America’s largest crop
of walnuts is produced—and that State produces no quantity of Paper
Shell Pecans.
As to attractiveness in appearance, of both the nut and the nut meat,
you and your friends are the best judges. People who know both nuts have
already handed in their verdict favorable to the paper shell pecan. In
addition, the pecan has been endowed by nature with a shell which is
air-tight—and therefore keeps many times as long without losing its fine
flavor or becoming dry and tough.
“The Most Prized of All Nuts For Domestic Uses”
In Bulletin No. 30, of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.
C., we read regarding Pecans: “In the course of time, however, as
they are more widely grown, they will become the most prized of all
nuts for domestic use, and it is probable that when the supply is
large they will be preferred abroad to the best Persian nuts.”
[Illustration:
IN OUR ESTABLISHED ORCHARDS stretch row after row of these sturdy,
strong-trunked, well established pecan trees, which after severe
pruning are forming immense heads with a profusion of nut bearing
branches.
]
The Pecan—The Year-round Nut
[Sidenote: Can be raised at best in a forty-mile radius]
=The pecan is the one nut suitable for eating the year round. And the
present tendency is toward the year-round use of nuts.=
Another reason why the finer pecans are surer to maintain their high
prices than any other nuts is found in the fact that Walnuts of the
finest grades are being raised in quantities in California, Oregon,
Washington and other States, and in England, France, Italy and South
American countries—while the territory in which the Paper Shell Pecan
attains its highest state of perfection is confined to a 40–mile radius
in southwestern Georgia, embracing those portions of Calhoun, Dougherty,
Lee and Mitchell counties, which are nearest Albany.
Is it any wonder that the former State Entomologist of Georgia, Mr. E.
Lee Worsham, whose name is virtually always included as one of “the
three big men in his line of endeavor,” wrote: “=In my opinion the pecan
growers of South Georgia have the finest horticultural proposition in
the United States=.”
“Among the Highest Priced Horticultural Products of America”
“Pecans of the second class bring $12,500 a carload. As a result of
the superior merit of this class of pecans and the limited extent to
which they are grown, they are now netting the growers in certain
districts a value per volume of product ranking them among the
highest priced horticultural products grown on a large scale in this
country. Carloads weighing 36,000 pounds each were recently (Oct.
1916) shipped from the Albany district of southwest Georgia to
Chicago brokers at 35c. a pound or $12,500 a car. These prices were
for pecans of the second class, the firsts bringing still higher
prices.” United States Congressional Record, Vol. 54, No. 22.
“What is The Paper Shell Pecan?”
Mention Pecan to any one who has tasted the improved paper shell variety
and they will assume that you are talking of Paper Shell Pecans. For the
person who cracks and eats paper shell pecans feels it almost a
sacrilege to call the common wild pecan a =pecan=.
Yet there are thousands of Americans who have never tasted paper shell
pecans, and who think of pecans only as wild pecans, grown largely in
Texas.
Pecans are divided in three general but radically different classes, as
the description and cuts below indicate.
[Sidenote: Wild Pecan—a staple food among Indians]
[Illustration]
=The ordinary wild pecan= is native to America. The earliest French
explorers found that one of the staple foods of the Indians was this
palatable nut which grew in the forests of the south, and in that
portion of Mexico adjoining the Gulf States. Pecan trees in Texas and
Louisiana have been found which were over five hundred to seven hundred
years old—which were still yielding large crops of nuts.
Like the oak, no one ever knew a Pecan tree to die of old age.
There are in the Southern States wild pecan trees of which the records
go back to the first civilization on this continent.
The pecan tree is so symmetrical and beautiful that it is called “The
Queen Shade Tree of Many a Southern Home.” Its fruitage is so prolific
that it is said to be “one of the most astonishing food engines in all
nature, yielding literally barrels of nuts.”
“Your Pecan Is Superior To Our Walnut,” Says Burbank
In the American Nut Journal, May, 1915, we read: “LUTHER BURBANK is
credited with the following statement regarding the pecan tree: ‘If
I were young again I would go South and devote my life to
propagating new species of the pecan. Walnut culture is the leading
horticultural product in California, makes more money for us and
makes it easier than anything else, and your pecan is superior to
our walnut. _The longevity of the pecan orchard and its immense
earning power make it one of the most profitable and permanent of
agricultural investments._’”
The Hardiest of All Nut Trees
[Sidenote: Pecan trees fear no drought]
The reason for this long life is that the pecan is the hardiest of all
nut trees—free from all ordinary tree pests and diseases because it is
of the hickory group, and the longest lived member of that group. The
lack of surface moisture—the great enemy of most trees—is not a
disadvantage to the pecan, for it has a remarkably long tap root which
goes down so deeply into the ground that it draws moisture from the
sub-soil. Since the blooming period is late in Spring, the buds are not
injured by frost.
The wild pecan has been a popular nut, rivaling, because of its superior
flavor, such other nuts as the walnut, chestnut, shellbark, hickory-nut,
etc. This popularity was secured despite its many drawbacks—for the
shell of the wild pecan is hard and the partition walls between the
kernels thick and bitter. There was too little meat and too much
difficulty getting it—but the experts saw in the great demand for
pecans, despite these disadvantages, =the promise of rich reward for
improving the pecan=.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: Seedling superior to wild grown Pecan]
=The seedling pecan= is the next step toward pecan perfection. Larger
than the wild pecan, and thinner shelled, it equals or surpasses it in
flavor, depending upon the variety of seedling under consideration.
Selling at an average price of 35 to 45 cents per pound, which is double
the cost of the wild pecan, it has so much more meat and it is so much
more accessible, that it is always a better paying purchase for the
housewife. So justly popular has the seedling pecan become that the wise
dealer and the discriminating housewife will have nothing to do with the
inferior, thick-shelled pecan, which is brightly tinted and polished to
disguise the inferiority.
The Pecan Makes More Progress Than Other Nuts Made In Centuries
“With practically no improvement as a result of culture and
breeding, but taken directly from nature, many of the wild
pecans afford an exceedingly desirable product. Unconscious,
and, therefore, unsystematic selection and planting of pecan
seed about dooryards during a period of less than 200 years has
developed varieties of such desirable quality that the pecans
most successfully compete with other species, like the almond
and the walnut which have been under cultivation for many
centuries.”—Congressional Record for January, 1917.
The Paper Shell Pecan
Had the work of experts not gone further than establishing the improved
Seedling Pecan, it would have justified all efforts—for the seedling
pecan bore justifiable comparison with any other nut on the market in
food value and accessibility; until =the Paper Shell Pecan was developed
from budded trees=.
[Sidenote: The paper shell pecan—the queen of all nuts]