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were things not to do, for none of the trees then planted are alive 

 today. Buying my present place in Baldwin, at the close of 1916 

 gave me about three acres available land and since then I have been 

 gathering grafted, budded or otherwise asexually propagated trees 

 of all the fine varieties that we have. At present there are on my 

 place some 



The only nut tree, native in the northeastern United States of 

 which I have no named variety is the Beech. 



In addition there are seedling trees of four additional species 

 of walnuts, seedlings from several hybrid walnut and hickory trees, 

 besides some thousands of seedling nut trees of practically all species 

 for use as stocks. 



I have for the past two years been gathering selected native 

 hazels from the various sections of the United States taking care to 

 select bushes that bore nuts that were relatively large, thin shelled 

 and fine flavored. 



Inasmuch as the hazel is native all over the country, and just 

 how to get bushes that bear the best nuts is not generally known, I 

 will tell how I do it, hoping that many others will seek out the best 

 hazels in their section and get them into cultivation. I provide 

 myself with a cloth about as large as a large handkerchief, a number 

 of wooden labels, some paper bags, a hand vise, a pair of calipers, a 

 scale and tools for digging plants. A spade or round-nose shovel is 

 about the best tool for digging the plant and frequently a hatchet, 

 axe, mattock, or bar is required in addition in case the hazels have 

 to be dug away from among the roots of large trees or from among 

 stones of considerable size. 



When a plant is found where the nuts look promising the 

 branch on which nuts are to be examined is marked temporarily by 

 throwing the cloth over it. A nut is then carefully cracked in the 

 hand vise, taking pains to extract the kernel whole. This is then 

 calipered with the calipers, set at a minimum size desired. If it is 

 undersize the bush is rejected and another sought. In measuring 

 the longest dimension is the one considered. The minimum size 

 depends on the section from which the hazels are being taken, no 

 kernel which is less than }i" in its longest dimensions being consid- 

 ered. While sometimes it requires a good deal of hunting to 

 accomplish it, I have never had to take bushes where the kernel was 

 smaller than this and it is seldom that it is necessary to take those 



