304 THE FILBERT. 



rected to that particular part. It will, however, be two 

 or three years before the full effect will be produced. By 

 the above method of pruning, thirty hundred per acre 

 have been grown in particular grounds and in particular 

 years, yet twenty hundred is considered a large crop, and 

 rather more than half that quantity maybe called a more 

 usual one ; and even then the crop totally fails three years 

 out of five ; so that the annual average quantity cannot 

 be reckoned at more than five hundred per acre. 



" When I reflected upon the reason of failure happening 

 so often as three years out of five, it occurred to me that 

 possibly it might arise from the excessive productiveness of 

 the other two. In order to insure fruit every year, I have 

 usually left a large proportion of those shoots which, from 

 their strength, I suspected would not be so productive of 

 blossom-buds as the shorter ones ; leaving them more in 

 a state of nature than is usually done, not pruning them 

 so closely as to weaken the trees by excessive bearing, 

 nor leaving them so entirely to their natural growth as to 

 cause their annual productiveness to be destroyed by a 

 superfluity of wood. These shoots, in the spring of the 

 year, I have usually shortened to a blossom-bud." 



Such is the management of these celebrated filbert 

 growers, their principal object being to keep the trees 

 small, open in the center, and covered in every part with 

 fruit spurs. A similar system, but less severe in the cut- 

 ting back, may be pursued here ; some such course of 

 treatment as recommended for the head of the quince as 

 to form and fruitfulness. 



Instead of relying on the spring pruning to subdue 

 vigor and induce fruitfulness, pinching should be practised 

 during the summer; for this not only checks the produc- 

 tion of wood, but of roots. Root pruning, too, may be 

 safely practised in August, when pruning and pinching of 

 the branches prove insufficient. 



In all cases, suckers must be completely eradicated 



