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.