Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/294

 286 WILLIAM BARLOW the walnuts on, so I would get them in time for Fall planting. They were forwarded to me at Oregon City and when all the charges came in, I was out just sixty-five dollars. I went down to town, brought the sack up and told my wife what they cost. She said, "Well, I declare, I could have got that many wal- nuts in Missouri for fifty cents." I said, "Well, we will crack a few of them anyway to see if they are good. If they grow, I will get my money back and several hundred per cent." She said, "One is enough to tell that and one is enough to lose." "No," I said, "We will have one apiece." They were both good and brought old Missouri and Illinois and Indiana right home to us. So I made a box, put sand and dirt in it, planted the nuts in the box and buried them all in the ground. I kept them moist all Winter and by Spring, they were all beginning to open. I then prepared the ground in fine shape and planted the nuts in rows. There were just 765 nuts of both kinds, but there were not over 100 butternuts out of that number. About 760 came up and such a growth I never saw before. I kept the ground well watered and well worked and the roots were larger and longer than the tops. A large portion of the roots went down three feet deep. Later in the Fall, I took them all up, set out about 100, gave away a great many to my particular friends and put the balance on the market at $1.50 each. I allowed a big com- mission to the nursery man who handled them, and the whole venture left me a net profit of $500.00. Besides I had my wal- nut avenue, 400 feet long, with a row of walnuts on each side. There is one tree that is over three and one-half feet in diame- ter six feet from the ground, and its branches spread out 80 feet in diameter or 240 feet in circumference.