FILBERT OR HAZELNUT. 143 



attack the exotic pear, apple, quince, peach, and other 

 of the larger fruits, and we have only to ascend he 

 scale a few degrees from the microscopic fungi to the 

 microscopic insects, to meet on the very threshold of 

 this realm the minute but unconquerable grape louse 

 (Phylloxera vastatrix), which for more than tw/s ca, tu- 

 ries has prevented the successful cultivation of tht, Euro- 

 pean varieties of the grape in the open air everywhere 

 east of the Eocky mountains in North America; although 

 this minute insect has ever been present and a constant 

 parasite of the indigenous species of the grape, but 

 scarcely affecting the health of its host. The plum cur- 

 culio, chestnut and hickory weevils, bean weevil, and 

 many other similar species of insects appear to be ever 

 protesting against the introduction of exotic plants, as 

 well as the improvement of our indigenous kinds. 



It is this blight, and nothing else, that has pre- 

 vented the extensive cultivation of the improved varie- 

 ties of the European filbert and hazelnut in this coun- 

 try, and not the uncongenial soil and climate, as has 

 been so often "officially" proclaimed by men whose the- 

 ories are far greater than their practical knowledge of 

 such subjects. Men whose experience with these nuts 

 has been limited to a few isolated bushes or trees in gar- 

 dens or nurseries, where they were protected, or beyond 

 the reach of the spores of the blight fungus, as has 

 already been noted in the experience of Prince, Downing, 

 Barry, and my neighbor Butler, of Brooklyn, could 

 scarcely understand why others should remain so indif- 

 ferent to such a promising industry, or why the demand 

 for the trees remained so limited, with scarcely an 

 attempt to plant filbert orchards anywhere in this coun- 

 try. Nurserymen have continued to offer the choice 

 varieties at low prices per plant, and to advise their cus- 

 tomers to cultivate filberts extensively, even to setting 

 them in hedgerows ; and yet home-grown filberts remain 



