250 



THE HAZEL. 



as it is, is the only plausible one which has been given. 

 Considerable skill is requisite in the cultivation of the 

 Filbert, in order to insure an abundant crop. In the 

 neighbourhood of Maidstone, in Kent, where they are 

 grown in greater abundance and perfection than anywhere 

 else in England, the trees are trained with short stems, 



like gooseberry bushes, and are pruned into the shape 

 of a bowl, very thin of wood, and never exceeding six 

 feet in height. The .produce from trees thus treated is 

 in certain situations enormous ; as much as a ton and a 

 half having been gathered from a single acre : a ton an 

 acre is, however^ considered a large crop, and, as total 

 failures are very. 'common, five hundredweight per acre is 



