Part 14

“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

One remarkable fact about the improved paper shell pecan is that it is at the same time richer in protein and fat than other nuts, yet is more digestible. People who say, “I cannot eat nuts because I suffer from indigestion,” are surprised to hear of pecans being prescribed by physicians—until they try the Paper Shell Pecan themselves and find that it agrees even with the invalid. Unlike other nuts which contain less fat—it can be eaten in quantity without salt without any ill effect. This is probably due to the fact that the improved pecan contains an oil which seems to possess many of the lubricating and healing qualities which are found in olive oil.

The digestibility of pecan fat is an established fact—pecans are used largely at such scientifically conducted sanitaria as those at Battle Creek as a substitute for meat and corrective diet in troublesome cases of intestinal derangement.

Consider the many fortunes made in olive oil—then remember that even if scientific research should show that pecan oil is not so beneficial as olive oil, the pecan has many manifest advantages in its more appetizing form, assurance of cleanliness and purity, etc., which makes its future promising.

No authority has ever questioned the nutritive value of the pecan. Even the wild pecan, which is far inferior in nutritive qualities to the Paper Shell Pecan, has received high recommendation from eminent authorities. But the fact that this nutriment was locked up within a hard shell, separated by a partition so strong and bitter that it was seldom possible to get out a satisfactory kernel, kept the wild pecan from enjoying the wide popularity it deserved. The introduction of the improved seedling and paper shell varieties not only led to an interest in these improved varieties, but caused such an increased demand for all pecans that prices rose on even the poorest wild pecans. =But the public found that the best pecans are the cheapest in the end—and the demand for pecans has increased most rapidly on these grades from which the largest kernels, containing the utmost in nutritive value, could most easily be removed whole.=

From one of the largest nut-tree nurserymen in the world:

“The demand for pecans of all descriptions is increasing faster than the supply.... The large pecans that we raise bring from 50 cents per pound up to $1.25. We do not think that the price will ever drop a great deal, though a great income can be had even at 25 cents per pound or even lower if trees are ten or more years of age. If one had $1,000 to invest he would be satisfied with 7%, which is $70, yet five or six trees will bring in this income. There are no diseases or insects that are bad on the pecan, nothing like as bad as with the apple, peach, etc., nothing that is anywhere near ruinous. Pecan trees are naturally a wild tree and therefore very hardy.”

A Test Which Proves The Best Pecans Cheapest In The End

A comparison was made of equal weights of the following grades of pecans:

=First=, Common wild pecans selling at about 25c per pound.

=Second=, Common seedling selling at about 30c per pound.

=Third=, Selected seedling selling at an average price of 40c per pound.

=Fourth=, Average Paper Shell Pecans, retailing at an average price of about 75c per pound.

=Fifth=, Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans selling at $1.25 per pound.

This comparison—on the five points (A-B-C-D-E) detailed below on this page and on the following page—shows which gives you the most for your money.

=A=—=Before Cracking.=—Though size of the nut whole counts for but little in judging pecans, as compared to the quantity and quality of the meat within the shell, those making the test were interested to note that even in the case of the few paper shell pecans in Class Four which seemed larger than an average Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecan, these larger shells were later found to be only partially filled with meat, or with many kernels shrivelled.

=B=—=Opening Process.=—The Hess Brand Paper Shell was found to open more readily in the hand without nut crackers, than did the other classes of nuts when nut crackers were used. When the fragments of shell were compared it was easy to see why—superior thinness of shell distinguishes Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans.

The meat in the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans filled the shells completely, while large air spaces were noted in many varieties in Class Four.

=C=—=Separating Meat From Shell.=—When various lots of nuts were carefully opened, in separate piles, a careful comparison was made of the meat and shells in each pile.

“Nature has prepared the soft shell pecan for man’s food by making the kernel easier both to extract and to digest,” says a well known pecan specialist.

The number of whole kernels was counted—no other pecan had four-fifths as many whole kernels as were found among the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans. The common wild pecan and the common seedling had such hard shells that the meat was practically all broken to small fragments in opening the shells. No detailed comparison was necessary between these crumbs of nut meat, mixed with shell and pith, and the whole kernels or half kernels of the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans.

=D=—=The Pith Test.=—In the Hess Brand Paper Shell and in the Paper Shell Pecans of the Fourth Class there was practically no pith—=the inner partition taking the form of a thin membrane which was easily removed, instead of the thick, bitter wall of the two cheaper classes of pecans=.

=E=—=The Final Test.=—When the nut meat, which was in appetizing or edible form, was separated from the shells and partitions in each case, it was found that for table use =the Hess Brand Paper Shell gave the greatest weight of nut meat for every dollar invested in the nuts, carriage and opening costs included=. The average paper shell variety which costs nearly as much as the Hess Brand Paper Shell was a poor second, followed closely by the Third Class (the selected seedlings), while the two cheap grades were in the end the most costly investment—because they yielded so small a quantity of satisfactory nut meat for each dollar invested.

This is also confirmed by many other tests, which show that even including small particles of nut meat, which are far from appetizing in form, the wild pecan and the common seedling yield less than four pounds of meat to each ten pounds of nuts; the Selected Seedling Pecan and the common Paper Shell about five pounds of meat to each ten pounds of nuts; and the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecan about six and three-quarters pounds of meat to each ten pounds of nuts.

With such superiority proven for Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans, it is no longer a question whether the public will pay the higher price. It is paying it.

Oskaloosa, Ia., Jan. 8, 1920.