But the winter
season came before this had been accomplished and both Mr. Miller and I,
deciding the idea was not as practical as we had hoped it would be,
abandoned it. Later that same autumn I found that a nursery just outside
of St. Paul had several rows of overgrown black walnut trees which they
would sell me quite reasonably. I bought them and sent instructions to
the tenant at my farm to dig twenty-eight large holes in which to plant
them. Packed in straw and burlap, the trees weighed about 500 pounds, I
found. This was much too heavy and cumbersome to pack in my old touring
car, so I hunted around for some sort of vehicle I could attach to my
car as a trailer. In an old blacksmith shop, I came upon an antiquated
pair of buggy wheels. They looked as though they were ready to fall
apart but I decided that with repairs and by cautious driving, they
might last out the trip of thirty-five miles. So I paid the blacksmith
his asking price--twenty-five cents. The spokes rattled and the steel
tires were ready to roll off their wooden rims but the axles were
strong. My father-in-law and I puttered and pounded, strengthened and
tightened, until we felt our semi-trailer was in good-enough order.
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