Think it over. Let your own judgment decide. Ask yourself these questions in regard to any investment under consideration.

What is the security back of my investment? In the Keystone Pecan Co. there is an acre of land which becomes yours on the payment of price shown on page 71. Remember this—you own the acre of land itself.

Land is the safeguard of this safe investment. Land cannot burn up, cannot be stolen; land cannot be wiped out by panics. The biggest trusts base their bond issues and their mortgages on land—yet the manufacturing plants which are built on that land may, due to panic, fail to produce enough to pay interest on the bonds or mortgages. Many of the largest industrial companies have suspended or decreased dividends since the European War ended, yet nature continues to provide foodstuffs and man still needs to eat them.

Productive land is the best of land investments. Tree crops are the profitable crops, which make land most productive. Note on page 37 that a leading farm paper tells of single pecan trees making more human food than a whole acre of Kentucky blue grass.

England Likes Hess Pecans

In Gardening, Illustrated, a prominent weekly published in London, England, we read: “The shells of the Hess Brand Paper Shell Pecans are thin and easily broken and the body of the nut in this variety is larger, fuller and better flavored than is usual with pecans. The pecan may rightly be regarded as a food of very highest value. It contains 70 per cent. of fat. Its texture is delicate, and it can be digested easily.*** The demand for the Paper Shell Pecan is constantly increasing and is well in front of the supply.”

The pecan is the surest of profitable crops—because after the first five years, during which we assume all the risks, the pecan is among the hardiest of trees. Gathering the nuts and selling them represents the bulk of the effort required after that.

You cannot be deceived on this score—the plan on page 38 shows that our interests are mutual. Would we deceive ourselves—could we afford to take any chances if we did not know that the pecan is as hardy a tree as the hickory or oak, and a surer profit payer than any other crop of any sort?

We could not have such assurance on a fruit tree—for every farmer knows that apples and peaches are subject to many perils of frost, storm, blight, borer, and of loss in shipment. Pecans are hardier than hickory nuts, they cannot be shaken off the tree till ripe. Citrus fruits—like oranges and grape fruit—are liable to frost, and spoil so quickly that it is impossible to hold them long before marketing. Paper Shell Pecans can be held a year without losing their delicious flavor and nutritive value; for nature has provided them with a perfect container (shell) which shuts out impurities and prevents deterioration.

There can be no glut of fine pecans—because they can be raised only in limited territory, they have the whole world for a market and the whole year for a selling season. As the famous Luther Burbank well says (see page 26): “We have now one pecan where we ought to have a million to create a market.”

An assured increasing market for perfected pecans, at an excellent profit, is back of every dollar you invest here.