Part 4

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

“Pecan production is destined to become one of the most important lines of orchard development in the United States.”—Cong. Record of the United States, p. 1101, Vol. 54.

Right Foods—The Increasing Demand

No matter what may happen, the demand for nourishing foods is sure to grow so long as the population increases. Railroads, steel, electricity—all are recent developments, none of them indispensable to mankind. =But existence itself depends on nourishing foods.=

“Then,” you say, “no business should be surer than that of supplying food to the growing population of America.”

Correct, provided you supply the right food.

For food standards are changing. Prove that fact, if you will, by the figures of the U. S. Census Bureau for the years 1900 and 1910, a period unaffected by the World War.

During that period the population of the United States increased from 75,091,575 to 91,972,266—an increase of virtually 22–3⁄10 per cent. Therefore, the production of any foodstuffs should increase by the same percentage during that period to provide for the same consumption per capita.

Has the consumption of beef increased during that period? Apparently not—for there were 8.7 per cent. less cattle on the farms in 1910 than in 1900. Nor was there any material increase in imports. That there was not a corresponding increase in the price of beef during this period, is indicated by the fact that the value of all cattle on American farms increased only 1.6 per cent. between 1900 and 1910—an increase only one-fourteenth as great as the increase in population.

There was a loss of 7.4 per cent. in the number of swine on American farms and a decrease of 14.7 per cent, in the number of sheep—the inevitable result of which loss while population was increasing to the extent of 22–3⁄10 per cent. was an increase in price per pound in pork, ham, bacon, mutton, etc., which automatically cut off a large part of the demand.

When urging the necessity for close study of the food problem, President Wilson pointed out the fact that during a ten-year period there had been a loss of 29 pounds of animal flesh per capita per year. With such a record it is obvious that some foods to replace meats must be found.

Why Spend Millions For Imported Nuts?

“We are annually importing between 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 pounds of nuts at a cost of between $12,000,000 and $13,000,000, while we export nuts worth less than a half million dollars. Why should we spend millions of dollars each year in buying nuts from foreign countries, when we can grow the pecan, the equal of any other nut, either native or foreign, in unlimited quantities?”—Congressional Record of the United States, Vol. 54, No. 27.

Poultry Gains Fail to Equal Increase of Population

Poultry was the only exception among meats to this history of diminishing supply, increased prices and diminishing demand. Yet the gain in the number of all fowls on American farms was only 17 per cent., while the population was increasing 22.3 per cent. The American production of nut foods was increasing 55.7 per cent. in the same period without beginning to meet the demand.

Though the increase in value of the American nut crop was 128.1 per cent., still the increase in consumption required an increase in imports so great that in 1910 America was supplying only one-fourth of the nuts it was eating; while in 1900 it supplied half.

Government figures, taken from a leading nut publication, show that in 1900 the value of nuts imported into the United States was $3,484,651. By 1910 it had risen to $12,775,196, which is 365% of 1900 importations, although the population of the United States increased only 22.3% during that ten-year period.

In 1919 there were $57,499,044 worth of nuts imported, which is 450% of the importations in 1910, although the 1920 census shows an increase of only 15% in population since 1910. Nut importations in 1919 are 1650% of those in 1900, while population increased only 40% between 1900 and 1920.

We see, therefore, that there is a gain in nut importations between 1900 and 1910 twelve times as great as the gain in population; that the later increase is so great that this gain between 1900 and 1919 is 39 times as great as the increase in population. Surely this is conclusive evidence of the great increase in nut consumption in the United States, when we remember how greatly the American nut crop was increasing during this period.

These authentic figures astonish even the man who has learned by experience that “=nut meat is the real meat=” of greatest food value; for they show what great number of his fellow countrymen have proved their belief in the same fact. The man who has looked upon nuts as a holiday diet alone, cannot fail to see his error, when he realizes that this increase in the importation of nut meats in 1919 compared to 1900 is nearly nine times as great as the increase in population; despite the largely increasing American production.

Higher education in food values has led people to realize the necessity for different and more varied diet—and this educational development has been facilitated also by economic conditions.

As population increases, land becomes more valuable. As land becomes more valuable—intensive farming is practiced. Grazing becomes virtually impossible under such conditions; and, despite all the efforts of the Department of Agriculture experts, cattle raising is pushed farther and farther from the large centers of population. Increased transportation and costs of refrigeration mean increased meat prices—even the importation of large quantities of South American beef between 1910 and 1914, for instance, failed to keep meat at a price low enough so that it could constitute the large food element which it once was on the American table.

“Shall We Cease to Eat Meat?”

asks Field Illustrated for March, 1919. A question of great significance, from a publication of unquestioned leadership on scientific cattle breeding. A question graphically illustrated by this self-explanatory chart.