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 Plantations | President Keystone Pecan Company |
| in Southwest Georgia—Calhoun, Dougherty, Lee and Mitchell Counties | Pennsylvania State Vice President of National Nut Growers Association |