brids of hickory. They served as a root-system and shortened the
length of time required to test dozens of hickory types, helping me in
that way, to learn within one lifetime what types of nuts are practical
for growing in the north.

Remembering the nut trees in southern Minnesota, I first thought to
procure black walnut and hickory trees from some farmer in that
district. Through acquaintances in St. Peter, I did locate some black
walnut trees only to find that it was impractical to dig and transport
trees of the size I wanted. A nursery near St. Paul supplied me with
some and I bought twenty-eight large, seedling black walnut trees. I was
too eager to get ahead with my plans and I attempted, the first year
these trees were planted, to graft all of them. My ability to do this
was not equal to my ambition though, and all but two of the trees were
killed. I was successful in grafting one of them to a Stabler black
walnut; the other tree persisted so in throwing out its natural sprouts
that I decided it should be allowed to continue doing so. That native
seedling tree which I could not graft now furnishes me with bushels of
walnuts each year which are planted for understocks. This is the name
given to the root systems on which good varieties are grafted.

In an effort to replace these lost trees, I inquired at the University
of Minnesota Farm and was given the addresses of several nurserymen who
were then selling grafted nut trees. Their catalogues were so inviting
that I decided it would be quite plausible to grow pecans and English
walnuts at this latitude. So I neglected my native trees that year for
the sake of more exotic ones. One year sufficed; the death of my whole
planting of English walnuts and pecans turned me back to my original
interest. My next order of trees included grafted black walnuts of four
accepted varieties to be planted in orchard form--the Stabler, Thomas,
Ohio and Ten Eyck.

I ordered a few hickories at the same time but these eventually died. My
experience with hickories was very discouraging since they were my
favorite nuts and I had set my heart on growing some. I think I should
have given up attempting them had not one dealer, J. F. Jones, urged
that I buy just three more hickory trees of the Beaver variety. He gave
me special instructions on how to prepare them against winter. I have
always felt that what he told me was indeed special and very valuable
since those three trees lived. Subse