1794 FRUIT-GROWING 



in 1913 3777 tons. Of recent years Sicilian cob-nuts have attracted atten- 

 tion on the English market. These nuts are grown in woods at an elevation 

 of more than i 200 feet above sea level. The highest yield recorded for 

 Sicily was in the year 1913, when the crop amounted to 13 000 tons. These 

 nuts have been sent chiefly to Central Europe from the ports of Palermo 

 and Messina in bags of 50 kilos, (no lbs.) each. In 1913 i 068 metric 

 tons of hazel-nuts were exported from Palermo and 945 British tons from 

 Messina. - 



Cyprus. — In C^'prus the hazel-nut grows luxuriantly in the hill vil- 

 lages, and the nuts produced are of good size and fine appearance, They 

 are gathered before they attain full maturity so that they soon beconie- 

 rancid. The exports are at present small, and the extension of the culti- 

 vation of this crop in Cyprus is urged. 



Asia Minor. — The hazel-nuts obtained from Asia Minor are known 

 as Turkish or Trebizond nuts, and in former times they were spoken of as 

 Pontic hazels. They are the produce of Corylus Colurna a tree of moderate 

 size, attairjng a height of 60 to 80 ft. if allowed to develop fully. Tbis- 

 species, or one or other of its geographical forms is distributed from South 

 east Europe through Asia Minor and the Caucasus to the Himalayas and 

 Western China. The cultivation of hazel-nuts for export is extensively 

 carried on in the Black Sea coast region, from Khopa, on the Russian 

 frontier, to Fatsa, which is just east of Unieh. Each tree produces annually 

 from 16 to 24 lbs. of nuts, which are of three kinds : the round, the pointed, 

 and the almond-shaped. The pointed are usually 10 per cent and the al- 

 mond shaped 30 per cent dearer than the round nuts, which form about 

 70 per cent of the whole crop. The bulk of the round nuts are shelled 

 before being shipped. The nuts are first sorted by revolving screens, then 

 cracked by means of stone-mills, after which the kernels are dried in the 

 sun and then packed in sacks for export. The shelling reduces the weight 

 to half so that the freight charge is reduced by 50 per cent. 667 045 cwts. 

 of hazel nuts were j^roduced in the Trebizond Vilayet in 19 13. The Ke- 

 rassond is the chief district of production, its crop usually averaging from 

 three-eighths to nearly five-eighths of the whole. The combined crops of 

 Trebizond, Yomura, Off, Surmeneh, and Tazestan furnish between them 

 from about one-quarter to three-eighths, whilst the remainder comes from 

 the Tripoli Eleon, Ordu, and Sharli Fol districts in unequal proportions. 

 Of the exports, about 48 per cent, have usually gone to Germany, 22 per 

 cent, to Austria-Hungary, and about 14 per cent, to France and the United 

 Kingdom. Exports to Russia have practically'- ceased, as nuts are success- 

 fully grown within Russian territor}- from Batum to Soukhoum Kaleh. 



Hazel nuts are used as dessert-nuts, and also in the preparation of va- 

 rious nut foods and nut chocolate. The}^ yield a bland golden-yellow 

 oil which resembles almond oil, but has a lower iodine value. 



The composition of fresh kernels of hazel (filbert) nuts is shown in the 

 following table : 



