broken in one hand by a gentle pressure. Kernel is large, easily
removed, of flavor so much finer that any observing person can
distinguish it from any other pecan by taste alone.
Instead of a bitter partition wall which imbeds itself in the nut when
it is cracked, as in the wild pecan, the paper shell pecan has a thin,
tissue-like membrane which is easily removed.
With the paper shell pecan a larger portion of the total weight of the
nut is meat than with any other nut, with the possible exception of the
finest almond. And this meat of the paper shell pecan contains seventy
per cent. fat, while that of the almond contains but fifty-four per
cent.
The paper shell pecan is the Queen of all nuts.
[Sidenote: Quality unequalled but supply is limited]
[Illustration]
It has no equal from the standpoint of size, appearance, accessibility
of meat, size of kernel, and fine flavor. The only disadvantage is the
limited supply—for there is but a small territory in which soil
conditions and climate are right. The walnut is raised in England,
France, Italy and in large quantities in the three Pacific coast states,
and in smaller quantities elsewhere. The paper shell pecan seems to
flourish best within a forty-mile radius around Albany, in Southwest
Georgia. Of the half million budded pecan trees in the world, two
hundred and forty thousand, or practically half, are in this forty-mile
radius. Were complete records of yield accessible, it would be seen that
this half of the budded trees has produced far more than their portion
of the crop.
While State Entomologist of Georgia, Mr. E. L. Worsham, wrote: “The
Pecan Industry has developed beyond the point where it matters not
what you or I believe. It is a success. Results are being produced
of wide interest and of permanent character, and the industry in the
Albany district in the hands of competent men has wonderful
potentialities. The hundreds of thousands of dollars invested by
shrewd business men in Commercial Pecan properties, after personal
investigation, argues that the development being recorded in the
Albany district is meritorious.”
The First Three Steps In Establishing Paper Shell Pecan Orchards
First, the Seedling Pecan Nut is Planted in the Nursery
[Illustration:
This picture shows a corner of the Nursery on our Calhoun County
Plantation, in which thousands of young trees have been grown.
Selected seedling nuts from our bearing seedling orchard (in the
background) have but recently sprouted, and are just above ground
when this first picture is taken.
]
A Few Years Later in the Same Nursery Corner
[Illustration:
One of our orchard unit owners inspecting the nurseries two years
later. The vigorous, sturdy two year old trees have been budded to
the standard paper shell varieties.
]
The Sturdiest Budded Trees are later Transplanted while Dormant, into
the Orchard Units
[Illustration:
Illustration at left shows one of our unit owners, Mr. A. E. Pretty,
Dawson, Yukon Territory, standing at a dormant tree in recently
planted units purchased by Alaska and Yukon people.
Illustration at right shows Mr. Henry E. Morton, President of the
First State Savings Bank and of the Morton Mfg. Co., Muskegon
Heights, Mich. (owner of 45 units on our plantation) standing at the
same tree, three months later.
Both pictures made to same scale, as figures of men show. (See letter
of Mr. Morton, page 50.)
]
[Illustration:
THE 12 OZ., “GIFT BOX” of Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans, which has
been ordered and re-ordered by pleased purchasers in every section
of the United States and Canada—and in many foreign countries,
including Mexico, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India,
China, France and Great Britain.
]
Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans
[Sidenote: Selected for finest flavor—and superior quality]
are selected for their superior quality from among the finest nuts
produced anywhere in the pecan district. They are the choice of
thousands of satisfied customers, everywhere, because they are the
finest flavored nuts which Nature produces.
They are uniformly large in size, thin in shell and well filled with nut
meat, as shown by illustration in natural colors on outside cover.
Their plump kernels—of delicious flavor and wonderful nutritive
value—are easily removed whole without the use of nut crackers. By
following the simple directions in every box, the thin shell is easily
cracked with your bare hand.
[Sidenote: Sold the world over—under this Money Back Guarantee]
[Illustration:
THE 10 LB. CARTON for family use—the logical second purchase of many
pleased customers.
]
They are packed in the beautiful 12–oz. Gift Box shown above; and sold
at $1.25 per box, under this Money Back Guarantee:—“Eat six at my
risk—if dissatisfied, return the balance within ten days and get your
$1.25 back”; yet out of thousands of packages sent out, less than six
packages have ever been returned.
[Illustration:
One shipment of pecans, boxed, ready to send out—photographed in the
packing room at Manheim.
]
We have Sold Tons of Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans
[Sidenote: The 12 oz. gift box leads to orders for 10 lb. cartons or 175
lb. barrels]
Though our Gift Boxes have enjoyed a remarkable sale during the Holiday
Season, our business is by no means limited to that period. Orders for
large quantities are received throughout the year from individuals for
use in their homes; but since each year’s supply has been exhausted in a
few months, we have found it necessary to refund money continuously
month after month until the new crop was harvested.
Numerous purchasers of Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans have re-ordered
many times in a single winter—while many others who have first bought
the 12–oz. box have ordered in large quantities up to 200 pounds, rather
than be compelled to order so frequently.
We have customers who buy by the barrel for their own table, and some
who have ordered two and three barrels in a single season. Each barrel
contains about 175 pounds.
[Sidenote: America does not produce enough pecans of this standard]
Our experience selling these high quality pecans shows that there is no
question whether the public will pay the increased price. The real
problem is to secure more pecans to meet the constant increase in
demand. The whole southern section of the United States does not produce
enough paper shell pecans of this standard to fill the demand for them.
ELAM G. HESS.
A Few Typical Cases of Re-orders
Detroit, Mich., Jan. 30, 1919.
[Sidenote: Bought twenty pounds—orders 75 pounds for next season]
I enclose check for 10 lbs. of Hess Pecans. Could you still take my
order for another 10 lbs.? I wish you to place me on your orders for
75 lbs. of the pecans from next fall’s crop.
W. H.
Sawyerville, Quebec, Mar. 18, 1919.
Will you please take my order for twenty pounds of Hess Pecans from
the next crop? The nuts are just splendid, and we never tasted
anything like them before for flavor.
R. G. B.
Reading, Pa., Jan. 6, 1919.
[Sidenote: Had 70 pounds orders 40 pounds more]
The 70 lbs. Hess Pecans received just before Christmas were
eminently satisfactory and disappeared like hot cakes. I am
enclosing check to cover the following order: 10 lbs. Ex. Fancy, 20
lbs. “A,” 10 lbs. “B.”
W. O. L.
Nov. 7, 1919.
[Sidenote: Orders 3 barrels later]
Please enter my order for 3 barrels of fancy grade pecans.
W. O. L.
Dec. 2, 1919.
The barrel of pecans arrived the day before Thanksgiving. The nuts
are gone and I am ready for more; wish the entire order before the
Xmas holidays.
W. O. L.
[Sidenote: Buying in 50 lb. lots]
F. B., Los Angeles, California (in the heart of the finest walnut
district), ordered 22 oz. box for $2, Feb. 13th, 1917. March 11th,
1917, wrote: “They are unquestionably the very best I ever ate, and
I am wondering if you have more to offer, and if so, the price in
bulk.” Aug. 2, 1917, order booked for Fall, 1917, delivery, 50
pounds Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans.
Nov. 27, 1917, sent check for $50 in payment of 50 pounds.
February 26th, 1918, sent his third re-order for 50 lbs. of Hess
Brand Paper Shell Pecans for delivery, Fall, 1918, for $50.
In 1919, purchased 20 lbs., remitting $25.00; 1920, bought orchard
units on our plantations.
[Sidenote: 16 pounds in less than three months]
Order received, Dec. 11, 1917, from Dr. M. B., Wabash, Ind., for $1
box of Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans.
Jan. 8, 1918, “Enclosed find check for $5 for which ship pecans like
the 12 oz. box recently sent me. They are the finest I ever ate.”
Jan. 24, 1918, sent check for $10 for more nuts.
Feb. 9, 1918, bought orchard units.
[Sidenote: “Wish I had a barrel”]
J. C., Seattle, Washington, wrote Jan. 29, 1917: “The size, quality,
and flavor are all of the very highest. They are richness itself.
Regarding food value, I question if there is any nut on earth equal
to it. I wish I had a barrel of them. You ought to plant at least
10,000 acres.”
April 10th, 1917, ordered 10 lbs. more for Fall, 1917, delivery,
saying, “They are the very best on earth.”
“The Finest Nuts I Ever Saw”
Says the world famous food authority, Dr. J. H. Kellogg
Dr. J. H. Kellogg, head of the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium, is a
world famous expert on nuts. His writings, based on a half century of
research, have shown that =pecan meat is suitable for “every month in
the year, for all climates, all work and all ages of mankind (except
infants)”=, as Good Health stated. He has directed attention to the fact
that pecans give all the food elements that animal flesh gives, in
better proportion and with assured freedom from impurity and disease. He
has made clear the vital importance of vitamines, found only to a very
slight degree in animal flesh, but profusely found in nuts.
His unquestioned leadership in this field gives added importance to this
letter:
Battle Creek Sanitarium
Battle Creek, Mich., Jan. 18, 1918.
Mr. Elam G. Hess, Pres.,
Keystone Pecan Co.,
Hess Pecans are the finest nuts I ever saw. What a blessing to the
world it will be when these fine products of the vegetable kingdom
come to be better appreciated by the public.
J. H. Kellogg.
From Another Food Authority
New York City, Dec. 27, 1916.
It is not strange that Hess Pecans are so much appreciated; they are
so good to eat. I ate a dozen at my supper and feel that could
everyone eat them every one would be benefited.
Dr. Elmer Lee (_Formerly Editor Health Culture_).
The Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecan is its own best advocate. Those who
taste it, quickly see why such superior pecans sell readily at $1.25 per
pound, while wild pecans are selling at 35c. per pound. The only
difficulty is that =not one person in a thousand has ever tasted the
improved Paper Shell Pecan=. Any thinking person, checking over the
records of increasing sales year after year, is sure to agree with
Burbank, America’s foremost horticulturist, when he says, “=We have now
one pecan where we ought to have a million.=”
More Evidence of Superiority on Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans
Covington, Ky., Jan. 16, 1919.
[Sidenote: Over 200 pounds in a single order]
The barrel of Hess Pecans that you sent me got here in good
condition, weight just as you say—202 lbs.—all right. They are
certainly fine nuts and fine to eat. Nuts and apples make a fine
meal, take that from me. Friends of mine think they are the best
nuts (pecans) they ever came across. My advice to the public—more
nuts, less meats and there would be less sickness. I have lived on
nuts, fruit and vegetables for the last four years and never sick.
F. J. L.
Auckland, New Zealand, Mar. 8, 1920.
[Sidenote: “Perfect” says New Zealand purchaser]
Received safely the 12 oz. box of Pecans which you so promptly sent
me on receipt of price. The pecan is unknown out here, and the
arrival of this stranger caused no little excitement. The pecan is
all you claim for it—we all pronounce it perfect.
F. L. G.
Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 29, 1919.
[Sidenote: Food value superior to beef]
The box of Hess Pecans arrived O. K., but they didn’t last long. I
never saw such a wonderful product in my life, and as for food
value—we need not worry about Beef becoming short or extinct.
H. J. W., M.D.
Goulburn, Jan. 14, 1918.
They are the first pecans that I have ever seen and I must say that
they come entirely up to your description and are splendid nuts.
C. F. M.
Cleveland, O., Dec. 24, 1919.
[Sidenote: “The finest nut on earth”]
I am in possession of the 10 pounds of the Paper Shell Pecan.
Without doubt it is the finest nut that exists on earth. I am happy
I have bought 5 Units of your wonderful plantation.
M. M.
New Orleans, La., Dec. 30, 1918.
I have received the box of Hess Pecans. I like them so well that I
enclose payment herewith, and request you to send a box to Mrs. G.
D., New Orleans.
C. F. L.
South Bend, Ind., Dec. 13, 1919.
[Sidenote: Liked 10 lb. box, orders two more]
The 10 lb. Box of Pecans you sent me came to hand and are good,
fresh, and very fine. I enclose you my check for $25 for two more 10
lb. boxes.
A. J.
San Jose, Cal., May 3, 1919.
[Sidenote: By all odds the best]
I received the box of Paper Shell Pecans, and enjoyed them
immensely; would say they are by all odds the best I have ever
eaten. I have also eaten the Creole Pralines of New Orleans, and the
nuts used in that confection, although good, do not compare.
W. S. M., Jr.
Wharton, Tex., Dec. 4, 1919.
[Sidenote: Wonderful flavor; it is all that you claim]
I am in receipt of the 10 lb. package of Hess Paper Shell Pecans,
and I wish to state that they are the very finest and best flavored
that I have ever tasted. You have produced a wonderful nut and it is
all that you claim.
R. A. G.
Quanah, Texas.
[Sidenote: More praise from Texas]
“Finest pecan I ever ate.”
E. S.
The Highest Priced Pecans—Yet Demand far Exceeds Supply
[Sidenote: A few more commendations from many received]
A high official of the city of New York wrote: “Such pecans never
were seen before in our neighborhood. They are all you advertised
them to be. I sent a box on to my daughter in Boston.”
[Sidenote: Re-orders and the cash—prove superiority]
From another, whose husband is at the head of a publication which
enjoys national prestige as an exponent of the finest nuts and other
foods by mail order, we received the following letter, along with
the second order: “Enclosed find check for which send package of
your Hess Pecans. Kindly ship these at once as we wish them for
Thanksgiving.”
Why take more of your time with detailed copies of letters from
customers ordering and re-ordering Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans? Is not
the fact that re-orders were received in itself the best evidence of
superior quality when it is considered that the selling price of many of
these shipments was $1.25 for 12 ounces, or at the rate of $1.65 per
pound?
The man whose wife wrote the last letter questioned whether any one
would pay this price—for an addition of fifty per cent. of the price of
the average paper shell pecan was too much, in his opinion. He
questioned the price =before= he sampled the nuts and noticed how much
they were preferred in his own home and among his friends. =After= that
the price was forgotten and the recollection of superior quality led him
to re-order, just as it did many others.
[Sidenote: Impossible to supply dealers’ demands]
For the past several years we have had to confine our sales almost
entirely to mail orders, because the supply has failed to increase
quickly enough to meet the demand. But in 1914 we made a test in one
American city of only 51,000 population (based on the 1910 census)
through one wholesale grocery firm. Paper shell pecans had not been
previously known in this section, their salesmen said that it was absurd
to attempt to market a 12–oz. box of Hess Brand Pecans at the retail
price of $1.00, then prevailing. Yet grocers re-ordered and re-ordered
till our available supply was exhausted—=the demand created by the nuts
themselves astonished all concerned=.
[Sidenote: New York City can consume the world’s supply]
The city in which this test was made was not our home town. It does not
stand above the average in per capita wealth—nor is there any evidence
to show that the people of this city are more likely to be interested in
pecans than any average American. To make such a test in a large city
like New York was impossible—for the entire yield of a 100,000–acre
plantation, planted twenty trees to the acre, could not supply a week’s
demand there, if New York bought pecans in the same proportion as the
city cited above.
A leading agricultural publication says:
“Tyler is a Texas town with about 12,000 people who eat a carload of
pecans every year. If New York ate pecans at the same rate, it would
consume our whole crop.” (“Whole crop” refers to all of America’s
crops combined, which is also the world’s crop.)
Why This Phenomenal Demand for Finer Pecans
There are many reasons for this remarkable demand for the finest grade
pecans—despite the higher price—which reasons are briefly indexed on the
five following pages.
[Sidenote: The superiority of these finer pecans]
The greatest of these reasons is the superior quality of these pecans,
as shown by tests on pages 33 and 34—the fact that they have a greater
content of easily digested nut meat, of attractive appearance and
greatest nutritive value, which nut meat is easily accessible, due to
their thin shells.
[Sidenote: The movement toward nut meat as the “true meat”]
There is a strong movement the world over toward nut meat as the “true
meat,” in which some have joined for religious reasons, some for ethical
reasons, others from dietetic or hygienic considerations—and many others
because of increasing knowledge of food values.
The Seventh Day Adventists will refer you to the twenty-ninth verse of
the first chapter of Genesis, which reads:
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
They reason that according to this passage “true meat” grows on
trees, and in this belief they are joined by many others for
ethical, dietetic and hygienic reasons.
[Sidenote: By religious, ethical and hygienic organizations]
[Illustration:
A 3½ YEAR OLD TREE on our plantation, photographed August, 1920.
October it bore many clusters of large, fully developed pecan nuts.
]
Everywhere in America there are large numbers of people, organized and
unorganized, who will not eat the flesh of any animal. In sanitaria of
all sorts there is a tendency to reduce to the minimum the use of all
animal meat or do away with it entirely. In one system of forty
sanitaria there are practically no drugs used because the patients are
put on a perfected diet system in which nuts are substituted for animal
flesh. At Battle Creek Sanitarium alone, under Dr. Kellogg, over 10,000
patients have adopted the meatless diet. Nut meat is largely used there
to replace animal flesh.
Nuts Meet the Demand For Uncooked Foods
[Sidenote: The most perfect uncooked food]
Many physicians who specialize in diseases of the intestinal tract are
advising the use of uncooked foods. Dr. Kellogg, in his book, Colon
Hygiene, sums up one strong argument in simple, non-technical language
when he says on page 223: “=Raw food resists the destructive changes
which are produced by bacteria, while cooked food makes no such
resistance.=”
Nut meat is practically the only source of both protein and fat, in
large proportions, which it is safe to eat uncooked. This statement is
readily proved by high authority.
In the Congressional Record for January 6, 1917, we read: “Nuts occupy a
unique position in the list of important food products, in that, with
the possible exception of a few other fruits, in =the raw condition they
alone afford a fairly complete and balanced food for human beings=.”
The fact that nut importations in 1917 were nearly ten times as great in
value as those in 1900—while the consumption of animal flesh had failed
to even keep pace with the increase in population—is evidence of
increasing public recognition of the great and varied advantages of nut
meat over animal flesh.
[Sidenote: Less butter-fat demanded, more nut-fat]
Possibly you will find this increase in the consumption of nut meats
even more surprising when you consider that there was practically twenty
per cent. less butter sold from America’s farms in 1909 than in 1899,
according to U. S. census figures. In other words, the consumption of
butter, which is the principal table article competing with nuts in
fatty content, was falling off to four-fifths during practically the
same period while the consumption of nut meat was increasing so rapidly.
Perfected pecan nuts contain more protein than beefsteak, and almost as
much fat as butter. Isn’t it only natural that people should want their
nourishment and fat in this concentrated form—hermetically sealed and
kept pure by nature? Is there any such assurance of purity and
cleanliness on butter—or on beefsteak?
=Place a Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecan on a hat-pin, light the nut meat
and notice that it burns like a candle because it is seventy per cent.
fat.=
“At this age (eight to ten years) the best parts of the orchards
under the most favorable conditions and in favorable years will not
infrequently produce from twelve to fifteen pounds per tree. The
average number of trees per acre of the orchards already planted is
twenty. Twenty trees per acre, each averaging twelve pounds, yield
two hundred and forty pounds per acre.” Speech of Congressman Frank
Park, Jan. 6, 1917, as reported in the Congressional Record.
Pecans For Sundaes and Candies, Etc.
The young women of America, who have changed so largely from soda water
and ice cream to nut sundaes, may not realize that they are getting
increased nourishment—but that is the case. That this is no small
element in the consumption of pecans is evidenced by the fact that one
druggist alone uses 1,500 pounds of crushed pecan meat per year for nut
sundaes—while hundreds might probably use as many if the true figures
were known.
[Sidenote: The pecan is the concentrated form of nourishment.]
[Illustration:
Enos H. Hess, Second Vice President, and some stockholders of the
Keystone Pecan Plantation.
]
Nut candies are in such great demand that the best confectioners are
astonished. But not all nuts are fit for use in summer. The confectioner
who is anxious to produce a quality product, places his dependence upon
the pecan—the finest of nuts—which nature has furnished in an air-tight
shell, which assures satisfaction the year round. The confectioners of
New Orleans—a hot weather city—long since learned their lesson and that
city is almost as much noted for its pralines—a pecan nut confection—as
for its wonderful fete, the Mardi Gras.
Pralines were too good to be confined to New Orleans alone. Along the
boardwalk at Atlantic City and other watering places, and at the finer
confectionery shops of the larger cities, they are in good demand. There
is no other way to make acceptable pralines except by using pecan
nuts—the finest pralines require that the nuts be whole, which, in turn,
indicates another need for paper shell pecans.
“A Greater Future Than Any Nut Raised In This Country”
“It is not many years since these delicious nuts, the Paper Shell
Pecans, were first introduced to the people of the North, and
wherever they have gone they have met with instant and cordial
favor. The Paper Shell Pecan has a greater future than any other nut
raised in this country. It is a most delicious nut.” Geo. K. Holmes,
noted authority on agriculture, Washington, D. C.
Maximum Food Values In Condensed Form
[Sidenote: Greater digestibility]