Finds His 45–Acre Orchard Better Than He Expected

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

Writes Prominent Manufacturer of Muskegon Heights, Mich.

Muskegon Heights, Mich.,

July 15, 1920.

Keystone Pecan Company,

Manheim, Pa.

Gentlemen:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yours very truly,

HENRY E. MORTON.

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

April 21, 1920.

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

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

A. E. Pretty, Dawson, Yukon Territory.

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

Pennsburg, Pa., June 26, 1919.

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

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

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

(Rev.) Geo. W. Lutz.

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

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

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

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

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

A. Robt. Hauter.

Buying 10 More Units—A Good Investment

Fleetwood, Pa., July 14, 1920.

Ritter Hosiery Company.

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

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

Frank R. Ritter.

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