Page 349 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

she was able to set aside $400. At Christmas time and other holidays, she
earned some extra money by preparing and selling coffee cakes, plum
puddings, fruit cake, and similar delicacies. Upon her graduation, her savings
made it possible for her to be certain of at least two years in college without
scrimping or missing any of the social activities. At the end of her first two
college years, an insurance policy her aunt had taken out when Jeannette was
a little girl, fell due and provided a sufficient sum to pay for the two
remaining years.

A College Education from Walnuts

O

N A FARM just outside a small town in Missouri, lived Mrs. Harris, a
widow, with one daughter in college. Money was scarce as it usually is on
farms. One day Mrs. Harris noticed that the walnut trees were loaded with
nuts. Perhaps, she thought, they could be sold. The next day she had the boy
who did odd jobs around the farm gather a couple of bushels of the walnuts
and they were spread out to dry in the sun. Later when they were dry, he
cracked them and she picked out the nut meats and carefully separated them
from the shells.

In the meantime she had written a sister in Chicago and asked her whether
there was any demand for black walnuts in Chicago. The sister replied at
once that she could sell about ten pounds to two candy firms located not far
from her immediate neighborhood and quoted the price the firms wanted to
pay. She also suggested another ten pounds which she believed could be sold
to friends and acquaintances. The thirty pounds were mailed by parcel post
and the two ten-pound lots delivered to the candy factories. At her bridge
club the sister served a cake baked with some of the walnuts and mentioned
the fact that the walnuts came from her sister’s farm. That was the start of a
nice little business. The walnuts were also put up in little cellophane bags and
sold somewhat higher than the general market price. The daughter at college
also helped. She induced a local store catering to the fudge-loving college
students to try a tenpound package and she secured an order from an ice