18 



nicotine. This does the business. I spray twice each season^ the first 

 time about June the firsts the last aljout August the first. 



Hickories 



I have two Weiker budded hickory trees on my lawn in town, but 

 the}- grow so slowl}' that I have never tried to bud an}^ hickories at 

 the Gardens. However, I have about fifty native shagbark trees 

 which were in woods when I purchased the farm and I cultivated and 

 fertilized these trees to improve the nuts. I have some very good 

 varieties from these seedlings^ but none to compare with those I re- 

 member in boyhood days. 



Filberts 



Some years ago, I received a notice from the Weber Nursery 

 Company of Nursery, Missouri, saying they had some imported filbert 

 bushes from France w^hich they would like to have tried out and would 

 sell them for 25c each. I ordered six plants and set them in my back 

 yard and paid very little attention to them. Finally I got interested 

 and began to study the filbert and its growth and development and 

 then began the propagation of them by layering, and from this be- 

 ginning have set about four hundred plants at Frunut Gardens. The 

 varieties I have are Dorrton, Blanc Lounge, Cosford and Effergut. 

 The last is a very poor bearer, hut a prolific bloomer. They are 

 named in the order of importance in their bearing record. I planted 

 bushes from Oregon and tlie German varieties from New York, but 

 these have not met expectations. Tliis year, five bushes in my back 

 yard produced about a^ half bushel of nuts. The four year olds at the 

 Gardens also produced quite a few nuts. The bushes have a spread of 

 about twenty feet and have reached a height of twenty feet, and make 

 fine bushy trees. 



I have never had any trou'ble with insects or fungi on the filberts. 

 However, they have winter killed rather severely, but for every limb 

 that winter killed, two more grew in its place and some of the new 

 limbs produced nuts this year. The bush tree presents a fine appear- 

 ance and makes a fine foliage plant for shade and beauty. I have 

 never sprayed them in any manner. I expect to fertilize the plants 

 this winter with leaf mould whicli I hn\e prepared for the purpose. 



A few years ago I obtained some nuts from the Park Commissioner 

 of Rochester, N. Y. that he said grew on a tree in the park, which 



