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.”
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
L. B. CODDINGTON
]
L. B. Coddington
First Vice President of the Keystone Pecan Company
is a resident of Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he has been successfully
engaged in the Wholesale Rose Growing Industry for twenty-four years.
The cut flowers from his greenhouses are sold wholesale in New York City
and Brooklyn and nearby towns. He is well known as one of the largest
rose growers in the United States.
Note Mr. Coddington’s letter on page 59.
Reference: Summit Trust Co., Summit, N. J.
[Illustration:
ENOS H. HESS
]
Enos H. Hess
Second Vice President of the Keystone Pecan Company
lives on the farm on which he was reared—R. F. D. No. 3, Lancaster, Pa.
He is 50 years of age. He is noted as a truck farmer, selling his own
products to Lancaster City consumers at famous Lancaster Markets, which
he attends twice a week.
Formerly a director of the Ideal Cocoa Company, Lititz, Pa.
Reference: Farmers Trust Co., Lancaster, Pa.
Willis G. Kendig
Director of the Keystone Pecan Company, and Corporation Counsel
is the well known corporation lawyer of Lancaster. He is widely known as
a lawyer of keen discrimination regarding commercial enterprises, and
the fact that he and so many associates from the richest agricultural
county in the United States place their money in this Georgia pecan
orchard is evidence of its worth. Mr. Kendig is 45 years of age; the son
of a doctor of Salunga, Pa., who also enjoyed a most excellent
reputation in his field.
Reference: Fulton National Bank, Lancaster, Pa.
[Illustration:
M. G. ESBENSHADE
]
M. G. Esbenshade
Secretary and Treasurer of the Keystone Pecan Company
lives on the farm in Lancaster Co. on which he spent his boyhood days.
(R. F. D. No. 3.) He is noted throughout the county and beyond as a
successful grower of tobacco. He is 45 years of age, a graduate of
Lancaster Business College, a director of the Farmers’ Association of
Lancaster County, one of the founders of the Agricultural Trust Co. of
Lancaster, of which he is a director.
In his extensive travels throughout the United States he has visited
nearly every State. Mr. Esbenshade has received valuable first hand
information on the growing and marketing of large food crops—especially
nuts. In 1895 he traveled widely in Florida, paying special attention to
orange and citrus fruit groves and pineapple fields, and in 1897 he
worked with the large growers of wheat in Dakota and California and in
the apple orchards of Colorado. In 1905 he made another trip south,
studying the groves along the Gulf Coast in which wild and seedling
pecans were raised, since which time he has made several trips
throughout the South with special reference to Paper Shell Pecans.
Reference: The Agricultural Trust Company of Lancaster, Pa.
[Illustration:
B. L. JOHNSON
]
B. L. Johnson
Director of the Keystone Pecan Company
resides at Allentown, Pa., and has been Sales Manager for that
district—embracing important counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey—for
the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, a $16,500,000 corporation, which
is known all over the world. Mr. Johnson is known throughout the
Allentown district as a self-made man, who has, at an early age, held
positions of trust and responsibility because of his earnest and
efficient work and his remarkable business judgment.
Reference: Penn Counties Trust Co.
[Illustration:
JOSEPH SEITZ
]
Joseph Seitz
Director of the Keystone Pecan Company
is a native of Lancaster Co., residing at Mountville, Pa., formerly a
farmer, now a dealer in leaf tobacco.
Reference: Northern National Bank of Lancaster, Pa.
From a commercial standpoint the pecan is by far the most important
of native nuts. Its smooth shell, attractive appearance, abundant
production, plump kernels, which are usually extracted with ease,
and high quality are largely accountable for its popularity. Page
23, Bulletin 160, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
[Illustration:
THOS. F. MILLER
]
Thomas F. Miller
Sales Manager of the Keystone Pecan Company
is 46 years of age. A graduate of State Normal School and also of
Lebanon Valley College, and taught public school three years. He has had
long, successful experience in selling, and was sixteen years in the
employ of Underwood & Underwood, and was associated with Elam G. Hess,
President of the Company, as Field Manager, appointing and drilling
hundreds of successful salesmen for their Travel System. He resides in
Allentown, Pa.; member of the Chamber of Commerce, of Allentown, and is
favorably known as a man of high ability and good reputation.
Reference: Merchants National Bank.
[Illustration:
A. S. PERRY
Field Secretary of the Keystone Pecan Company, and Secretary of the
National Nut Growers Association.
]
A. S. Perry, Field Secretary, Keystone Pecan Co.
_A. S. Perry_, Field Secretary of the Keystone Pecan Company, is not
only one of the best known pecan experts in America, but is also
thoroughly in touch with the best pecan land in Southwest Georgia, of
which he is a native. For practically a hundred years his family has
lived or owned land in Calhoun County—his grandfather’s farm being only
ten miles from our Calhoun County Plantation.
Was educated at the Southwest Georgia Agricultural and Military College
(a branch of the State University) and also at Emory University. In
addition to his general and agricultural education, he studied law and
was admitted to practice in all courts of Georgia—specializing in
Commercial Law.
Has had much practical experience in pecan growing—orchards near
Cuthbert, established by Mr. Perry, are recognized as of such high grade
that his services have been in great demand for establishing new
orchards, top working old seedling orchards to paper shell pecans and
similar expert horticultural work. In addition to the National Nut
Growers’ Association, of which he has been elected secretary for the
fourth successive term, he is a member of the Georgia-Florida Pecan
Growers’ Association, Georgia Horticultural Society and Alabama
Horticultural Society, and is in demand as a speaker on pecan culture
before these organizations.
Reference: Georgia Bank and Trust Co., Cuthbert, Georgia.
Our Vice President and Sales Manager Have Both Added to Their Holdings
on Our Plantation During the Past Year
Read Their Letters Below
Why Mr. Coddington, Vice President of the Keystone Pecan Company, Bought
More Units
Murray Hill, N. J., Oct. 1st, 1919.
_My Dear Mr. Hess_:
After spending last Saturday and Monday inspecting the entire
plantation, I am highly pleased with the progress made since my last
inspection.
The trees of this year’s planting have taken hold in a remarkable
fashion—the growth made since last March is so wonderful that it is
hard to believe.
The trees of the preceding year’s plantings look well, but the
greatest surprise of all was the earlier plantings. The trees in
Block 1 A, for instance, prove the advantages of the Keystone Medium
Height Pruning System. In many cases they have made five to six feet
growth since they were pruned last Spring—and the thickening of the
trunks and all the branches proves that those trees will be well
able to carry heavy heads and bear large crops of pecans.
In the old bearing orchard the foliage was of the same healthy deep
green color noted all over the plantation. But the best proof of
their vigor was the fact that on many of these trees all the
branches were loaded down with big nuts, nearly ripe.
After a lifetime contact with growing things, I am so well pleased
with the conditions on the plantation that I have, as you know,
purchased additional units.
L. B. CODDINGTON.
Why Mr. Miller, Our Sales Manager, Bought Seven Additional Units
968 Jackson St., Allentown, Pa., Dec. 29, 1919.
_Dear Mr. Hess_:
In May, 1915, I wrote you that my interest in this new industry and
my ambition to some day own a pecan orchard dates back before the
Keystone Pecan Co. was in existence. My study of this improved nut,
its food value, the whole world to supply, its advantage over other
tree crops, in harvesting, packing, shipping, not perishable, beside
the long life of the trees and the small expense of up-keep after
the fifth year, and the wonderful yield satisfied me that it was the
safest and most profitable industry I know.
When you conceived and formed the Keystone Pecan Company with its
co-operative plan, I saw my opportunity, and invested and purchased
Units. Having been in business with you for so many years and
knowing your capacity to plan big business and your ability to carry
your plans to perfection, also the other members of the Company
being known as clean, honest and progressive business men, gave me
entire confidence. When you wanted me to become sales manager, I
decided to visit the plantation. In company with some of my friends,
I made my first visit. We were delighted, beyond expression, with
everything. Competent management seemed to be working out a perfect
system.
Now, after nearly five years of continual work with you in selling
the Keystone Pecan Orchard units, I want to compliment you more
strongly than ever on the way you have planned and are making good.
The progress has been beyond our most sanguine expectations. Each
year I have visited the plantation from one to three times
accompanied in every case by Unit Owners. My friends have always
been well pleased with what they saw on their orchards, but the
marked progress the past year, under your expert plantation
organization, is such as to fire every Unit Owner with the desire to
own more units, fertilized, pruned, cultivated and cared for under
your system.
A total of over 200 additional units have been purchased during the
past year by unit owners who have visited the plantation with me.
Many of these purchased their first units two, three, or four years
ago, before visiting the orchards. This is the strongest evidence
that the conditions on the plantation must be right. I was glad I
could add seven more units to my own number during the past year,
and hope to further increase my holdings. I can see now why Mr.
William P. Bullard, your horticulturist, expressed surprise that the
Company was selling these units at so low a figure.
THOS. F. MILLER.
[Illustration:
WM. P. BULLARD, Executive Horticulturist Keystone Pecan Company.
Former Secretary of the National Nut Growers’ Association.
]
William P. Bullard, Horticulturist on our Calhoun County Plantations
Of William P. Bullard, the American Nut Journal of Rochester, N. Y.,
said: “He is a grower of many years’ active practical experience, and is
familiar with all the problems of production and selling from the
growers’ standpoint.”
Mr. Bullard is widely known as a careful, conservative man, who
emphasizes the importance of thorough cultivation and fertilizing during
the first five years, in order to establish orchards that will produce
beyond the average. The favorable reputation of this large company and
its well known desire to produce superior orchards for its unit owners,
naturally draws to it experts of big calibre and broad experience. (See
letter of Rev. Lutz, page 50.)
Reference: Georgia National Bank, Albany, Ga.
On these Calhoun County Plantations, we have as resident horticulturists
and orchard managers, W. J. Moran and G. W. West, practical pecan men of
long experience, and with the proven ability to produce orchards up to
the highest standards. Mr. Moran has been in pecan orcharding since
boyhood, having been first associated with the Simpson Nursery Co. and
later having developed one of the finest orchards in the district; Mr.
West is an excellent manager of large bodies of farm labor, with long
experience in pecan tree cultivation.
The pruning of the older trees and the budding of the seedling trees in
the nursery is all done by O. C. Starks, pruning expert, or under his
supervision.
Our Dougherty Co. Organization
[Illustration:
R. C. SIMPSON, President of Simpson Nursery Company.
]
R. C. Simpson
R. C. Simpson, President of the Simpson Nursery Company of Monticello,
Florida, and C. A. Simpson, Secretary and Treasurer of that Company, are
both horticulturists of the highest reputation. They are pecan growers
of recognized ability, and this plantation shows the advantages of their
thorough skilled supervision.
R. C. Simpson, President of the Simpson Nursery Co., is now 38 years
old. Born at Vincennes, Indiana, where both his grandfather and father
were leading nurserymen. Graduated from Vincennes University in 1901 and
from Cornell University in 1905. While in college he pursued the study
of Agriculture, specializing in horticulture, and in 1905 was granted
the degree of Bachelor of Science in Horticulture by Cornell University,
one of the most advanced agricultural institutions in America.
Went South in 1906 to pursue his practical work in pecan culture and
established the nurseries of which he is now the head. His fourteen
years of practical experience in pecan growing in the South, backed by
his long preliminary training have made him one of the most successful
men in America in his line.
Bank Reference: Bank of Monticello, Monticello, Florida.
[Illustration:
C. A. SIMPSON, Secretary and Treasurer of Simpson Nursery Company,
First Vice President National Nut Growers’ Association.
]
C. A. Simpson
_C. A. Simpson, Vice President, National Nut Growers’ Association_, and
Secretary and Treasurer of the Simpson Nursery Company, was born at
Vincennes, Indiana, 1876—is 45 years old. Graduated from Vincennes
University in 1895, and from Purdue University in 1898.
Has had business experience in engineering department of large telephone
manufacturing company, and was Assistant to Chief Engineer, when he went
South in 1911 to become his brother’s partner in the Simpson Nursery Co.
He has had wide experience and is widely known for his skill in
propagating pecan trees and developing pecan groves.
Bank Reference: Bank of Monticello, Monticello, Florida.
Our Mitchell County Organization
J. B. Miller, of Baconton, Ga.
whose supervision extends over our Mitchell County Plantation, is a
successful pecan grower and business man known throughout this district.
He was born in this section, 45 years ago and has had lifelong contact
with agriculture of all types in this district. He is among the pioneers
in the pecan business, having developed successful orchards and a fine
pecan nursery.
He is, in addition, well known as a manufacturer of Naval Stores, and
dealer in general merchandise, and is connected with a leading banking
institution of Baconton.
J. R. Miller, of Baconton, Ga.
Mr. Miller is a younger brother of Mr. J. B. Miller and has been
associated with him in the handling of his farm interests and the
development of his pecan nursery and orchard. He is an able business
man, 40 years of age. He has acquired a reputation around this district
as being one of the most practical farmers and pecan horticulturists and
is particularly well versed in field practise and in the supervision of
cultivation.
Assistant to the Miller brothers in the cultivation of these orchards is
Mr. Dukes, who has had many years of experience in the care and
development of pecan orchards and is in addition noted as one of the
best experts in South Georgia, in the mechanical cultivation of the tree
rows.
Our Lee County Organization
[Illustration:
ALEXANDER POPE VASON
]
Alexander Pope Vason
_Alexander Pope Vason_ is one of the foremost business men of Albany,
Georgia, being president of the Fowltown Farms Company, and of the
Albany Warehouse Company; Vice President of the Citizens’ First National
Bank of Albany; Director of the Albany Trust Company, and a member of
the Albany Board of Aldermen, Board of Education, etc. He is above all a
practical horticulturist and farmer, having been the pioneer in the
peach growing industry in South Georgia. While a graduate of the
University of Georgia, it is as a practical man, able to get the best
results from his farm labor, that he is most noted.
[Illustration:
JAMES P. CHAMPION
]
James P. Champion
_James P. Champion_, one of the leading business men of Albany, Georgia.
He has been identified all his life with agricultural development in
this district, having risen to the position of Manager, Secretary and
Treasurer of the Albany Warehouse Company, manufacturers of fertilizer,
and large cotton factors, because of his rare foresight in regard to
farming and horticulture throughout the surrounding district. Was
associated in first successful peach orchard in this district, the Vason
and Champion Peach Orchard; is Secretary and Treasurer of the Fowltown
Farms Company. Has served as Director of the Albany Chamber of Commerce,
Chairman of Liberty Loan Committee of County in 3rd, 4th, and 5th
drives. Director of Exchange Bank of Albany, Georgia.
Our Lee County Organization
[Illustration:
ALVA W. BARRETT
]
Alva W. Barrett
_Alva W. Barrett_ was born in North Carolina and lived in Florida in his
early days. In 1910 became connected with the Albany Grocery Company, of
Albany, Georgia, following which date he made most careful study of
farms and farming throughout the district, handling up to 1917 a large
amount of farm real estate. In 1917 he organized the Consolidated Motor
Company, which has become under his management the leading automobile
business of Southwest Georgia, continuing his farm development all the
while.
He is the owner of the large, successful farms immediately adjoining our
Lee County property, and is also a most substantial business man.
He has served as a director of the Albany National Bank and is now
director of the Georgia Bank and Trust Company.
[Illustration:
C. C. McKNIGHT
]
C. C. McKnight of Senoia, Georgia
_C. C. McKnight of Senoia, Georgia_, is known, not only as one of the
largest land owners in his country, but also as a practical farmer and
business man. He is 41 years old, was born in Georgia, and has for
twenty-one years been known as a large dealer in mules, wagons, farm
implements and supplies of which his practical farming experience makes
him a keen judge. For fifteen years he has been active in the Farmers
and Merchants Bank of Senoia, and has been Vice President since
1910—during which time deposits have increased nine fold. He is also
Vice President of the Newnan Bank and Trust Company of Newnan, Georgia,
which has a capital stock of one-half million dollars.
[Illustration:
R. C. BERCKMANS, who has an international reputation as an authority
on horticulture and nut growing.
]
Robert Craig Berckmans
Horticulturist and Fruit Grower
Member of the P. J. Berckmans Company (Nurserymen), Augusta, Georgia,
1883–1917, when above business was sold by him and his brother.
Nurseries were established by his father in 1856—he is of the third
generation that has followed this profession.
He established the famous Berckmans Bros.’ Farm and Peach Orchards, at
Mayfield, Georgia, some twenty years ago, the products of which are
known on all Eastern and Western markets.
He has been identified with some of the largest developments in the
South in horticultural lines, and is known to all horticulturists and
nurserymen of the United States and many foreign countries.
Was President Georgia State Horticultural Society for the past ten
years, succeeding his father, who was President for 34 years and the
only President that the Society had ever had up to his death.
President, American Association of Nurserymen for two years.
President, Southern Association of Nurserymen.
President, Ornamental Growers’ Association of America.
Vice President, American Pomological Society.
Member Georgia State Board of Entomology for past ten years and just
re-appointed for the next six years.
Member of many horticultural societies in Europe.
Has traveled extensively in foreign countries, studying horticultural
conditions with the view of applying these to conditions here in America
when practical.
Member Executive Committee, National Nut Growers’ Association.
Author of many articles on horticulture.
No Investment Can Be Safer
Think it over. Let your own judgment decide. Ask yourself these
questions in regard to any investment under consideration.
=What is the security back of my investment?= In the Keystone Pecan Co.
there is an acre of land which becomes yours on the payment of price
shown on page 71. Remember this—you own the acre of land itself.
[Sidenote: Productive land—yielding needed food of highest value]
=Land is the safeguard of this safe investment.= Land cannot burn up,
cannot be stolen; land cannot be wiped out by panics. The biggest trusts
base their bond issues and their mortgages on land—yet the manufacturing
plants which are built on that land may, due to panic, fail to produce
enough to pay interest on the bonds or mortgages. Many of the largest
industrial companies have suspended or decreased dividends since the
European War ended, =yet nature continues to provide foodstuffs and man
still needs to eat them=.
=Productive land is the best of land investments.= Tree crops are the
profitable crops, which make land most productive. Note on page 37 that
a leading farm paper tells of single pecan trees making more human food
than a whole acre of Kentucky blue grass.
[Illustration:
A 3½ YEAR OLD TREE ON OUR PLANTATIONS
]
England Likes Hess Pecans
_In Gardening, Illustrated_, a prominent weekly published in London,
England, we read: “The shells of the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans
are thin and easily broken and the body of the nut in this variety
is larger, fuller and better flavored than is usual with pecans. The
pecan may rightly be regarded as a food of very highest value. It
contains 70 per cent. of fat. Its texture is delicate, and it can be
digested easily. * * * The demand for the Paper Shell Pecan is
constantly increasing and is well in front of the supply.”
=The pecan is the surest of profitable crops=—because after the first
five years, during which we assume all the risks, the pecan is among the
hardiest of trees. Gathering the nuts and selling them represents the
bulk of the effort required after that.
=You cannot be deceived on this score=—the plan on page 38 shows that
our interests are mutual. Would we deceive ourselves—could we afford to
take any chances if we did not know that the pecan is as hardy a tree as
the hickory or oak, and a surer profit payer than any other crop of any
sort?