Alton E. Glass was interested in, or associated with, agriculture nearly all his life. Born in 1893 on a ranch at San Ramon, California, he spent his early childhood on the T. B. Rickey ranch in eastern California. He remembers well the Rickey spread, and the details of ranch life there. Mr. Glass received his early education at home on the Rickey ranch, and later attended schools in California and Reno, Nevada. After leaving the University of Nevada, he worked at various engineering jobs in Nevada, California and Texas, finally returning to Reno. There, he became associated with First National Bank, and his second--and longest--work in the agricultural field began. Working as appraiser for the bank, Glass visited hundreds of farms, ranches, and livestock herds in the course of a forty-year career. He learned to judge crops and animals with the sure consideration of an expert in both banking and ranching. Meanwhile, he observed the development of branch banking and the expansion of financial facilities in Nevada.

The memoir by Alton E. Glass includes descriptions of life on the Rickey ranch with observations on local people; accounts of educational conditions in Reno in the period from 1908 to 1915; vignettes of his work with Shell Oil in California and Magnolia Petroleum Company in Texas; the evolution of the First National Bank of Nevada; narratives and anecdotes of his work as appraiser for the bank, including economic assessments of nearly every rural community in Nevada; and a philosophical conclusion. Mr. Glass died in May, 1966.