14 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



four feet apart each way and cultivated for a few years. As the trees grow 

 they will need thinning to twenty-five or more feet apart, but the wood will 

 abundantly pay for the labor and the young trees will keep down other growth. 

 There is a great difference in the wild varieties of the Little Shellbark as 

 regards size, thinness of shell, quality of the kernel and its readiness to part 

 from the shell. There have been so few experiments with seedlings, that little 

 is known as to the possibility of these good characteristics being generally 

 transferred to them. Grafting is the only safe way according to present knowl- 

 edge. 



Within the past few years a number of choice varieties have come under 

 my notice, and some of them have been named. No doubt there are many 

 others equally good that should be brought to general knowledge. A few of 

 the named kinds will be here mentioned: Hales, Learning, Curtis, Eliot, Rice, 

 Milford. 



The Hazels The nuts of the genus Cory his are called Hazelnuts, 

 Filberts and Cobnuts rather indiscriminately in both 



Europe and America. All but one of these are of a rather shrubby nature, and 

 propagate naturally by suckering. 



American ^ th * S num ^ er > two are natives of a large part of 



Hazels Central North America, and are both found wild in 



some parts of New York. While their nuts are not 



so large as those of the European species, the flavor of their kernels is good, and 

 the bushes are very hardy and productive. We mention the Cory I us Ameri- 

 cana and Corylus Rostrata. 



European There has long been considerable doubt and trouble 



Hazels about the proper classification of the three European 



species of the Hazel family, both to botanists and 



pomologists. They are a source of very considerable profit, chiefly in England, 

 France, Italy and Spain. It is stated that many thousands of tons of Filberts 

 and Cobnuts are annually exported from the county of Kent, England, Most 

 varieties flourish best in a rather moist, cool and yet a mild climate. 



In this country they have long been grown here and there over a wide area 

 but in a very limited experimental way. One apparently serious obstacle to 

 their successful cultivation here has been their liability to yield to the effects 

 of fungous diseases. Experiments are now being made in New Jersey and else- 

 where in the hope of finding remedies for this evil. 



Another difficulty has been the inopportune time of the blooming of their 

 staminate and pistillate flowers. This can be overcome by planting varieties 

 near each other that will properly cross-fertilize. In Europe they sometimes 

 cut branches from their wild hazel bushes that have pollen-bearing catkins, and 

 hang them on the fruiting bushes for this purpose. 



