When the average man hears the word "pecan" be instantly thinks of the bitter red little nut which is ever present in the supply of Christmas goodies but which is religiously culled and fed to the glowing grate. Mr. Average Man never even heard of the southern paper shell pecan. In fact, up to the present time, the demand has far exceeded the supply and but little if any effort has been made to develop new markets. I think it a conservative estimate that not ten per cent of our population have ever tasted a paper shell pecan. The paper shell pecan is our national nut and its only competition in the markets of the world is the ignorance of the public. Acquaint the public with its merits and there will be a demand for a million times our present supply. Away with the thought of overproduction. The "avalanch of nuts" is an old wife's fable. Do not talk to us about overproduction, when the food problem is giving the gravest concern to the master minds of the world. With population increasing and food supply diminishing the gaunt specter of famine is creeping closer and closer to the homes of men even in our own favored land. Hunger knows no armistice. It conquers amid the snowdrifts of the North, where the grand army of Napoleon found its winding sheet. It conquers amid the burning sands of the south where the phalanx of Alexander halted in mutiny. Away with such nonsense as overproduction in discussing this the choicest food product ever given by a gracious God to a hungry world. The ideas of yesterday do not fit the ideals of today. When conditions shift opinions must be adjusted accordingly and the pioneer growers are about to realize their golden dreams and reap their reward, for their orchards are coming into bearing and yielding tons of beautiful brown nuts for which they find a ready sale at prices ranging from 50 cents to 75 cents per pound and at even higher prices for extra fancy stock. No doubt many extravagant statements have been made about the pecan industry but why exaggerate when the plain truth staggers the reason? Why draw on the imagination when reputable growers in the Albany District certify to returns to non-resident owners of $300 per acre in a single season. This is one infant industry that will not cry for a protective tariff. Never will Capitol Hill resound with the eloquent plea of some statesman urging that the southern paper shell pecan industry be protected by a tariff wall. The paper shell pecan is the horticultural triumph of the ages the gift of a gracious God who no doubt could but never did produce a finer nut and who in his inscrutable wisdom gave a natural monopoly in its culture to the lower cotton belt for no where else on the habitable globe does it reach the perfection attained there. The Mississippi Valley has been called the cradle of the pecan industry and Georgia its nursery.