Nearly all of them started to grow but died during the first few
winters. Those which survived were the start of a nursery filled with
hardy trees which can endure the climate of the north. In looking back,
I appreciate how fortunate I was in having sought and received advice
from experienced nurserymen. Had I not done so, frequent failures would
surely have discouraged me. As it was, the successes I did have were an
incentive which made me persist and which left me with faith enough in
an ultimate success to go on buying seeds and trees and to make greater
and more varied experiments.




Chapter 3

BLACK WALNUTS


I have spent more of my time cultivating black walnuts than any other
kind of nut tree and given more of my ground area over to them. Yet it
was with no great amount of enthusiasm that I started working with these
trees. Obviously there could be nothing new or extraordinary resulting
from my planting trees of this species either on my farm or at my St.
Paul home, since there already were mature, bearing black walnut trees
at both places. It was only with the idea that they would be an
attractive addition to the native butternut groves that I decided to
plant some black walnut seedlings.

This did not prove feasible as I first attempted it. I had engaged a Mr.
Miller at St. Peter to procure wild black walnut trees for me since they