[Illustration: _Carl Weschcke, Jr., hand holding Weschcke hickory in
hull. 9/15/42 Photo by C. Weschcke_]

On my arrival in Fayette, I called on Mr. Bailey, who was glad to help
me hunt out the tree in which I had so much interest. We called A. C.
Fobes, the owner of the farm from which the nuts were believed to have
come, and arranged to go out there with him by bob sleigh. A rough ride
of six or seven miles brought us to the farm and we began our quest.
Once there, Mr. Bailey had a more definite idea of where to look for the
tree from which these particular nuts came than he had had before and we
had not been at our task for more than an hour before it was located.
There were still quite a few nuts on the ground beneath it, which
identified it accurately. It was a large shagbark whose first living
branch was fully sixteen feet off the ground and, since we had no ladder
with us, I had to shin up the tree to cut off some of the smaller
branches. This shagbark, true to its name, had rough bark which tore not
only my clothes but some of the skin on my legs as well and whereas the
climbing up was difficult, the coming down was equally so. Having
contracted verbally with Mr. Fobes to buy the tree, I packed the
branches I had cut in cardboard boxes with straw packing and carefully
brought them home to St. Paul.

I wrote at once to my friend, J. F. Jones, of my expedition, telling him
of my plans to propagate this hickory. I also sent him some of the nuts
from the parent tree and samples of extra-good nuts from other trees
growing near it so that he could give me his opinion of them. Mr. Jones
responded by advising me about the kind of a contract to make with Mr.
Fobes in regard to both the purchasing and propagation of the original
hickory tree and he urged the latter enthusiastically. Of the Weschcke
hickory nuts themselves, he wrote: "This is practically identical with