HAZEL. 153 



Spanish nut, which grows fast, and does not send out 

 side-suckers, dwarfish prolific trees may be obtained ; 

 and by pruning the roots in autumn, the trees may be 

 kept dwarf. 



The neighborhood of Maidstone in Kent has long 

 been celebrated for the culture of nuts for the London 

 market ; and as the best Kentish practice is scarcely 

 known in other parts of Britain, we may enter a little 

 into detail. The young plants are almost always suck- 

 ers from old bushes, and are planted about ten or twelve 

 feet apart. They are suffered to grow without restraint 

 for about three years, and are then ciit down to within 

 a few inches of the ground. They push out five or six 

 shoots ; and these in their second year are shortened 

 one third. A hoop is then placed within the branches, 

 and the shoots are fastened to it at nearly equal dis- 

 tances. In the spring of the fourth year, all the laterals 

 are cut off close by the principal stems, and from these 

 cut places short shoots proceed, on which fruit is ex- 

 pected in the following year. Those which have borne 

 fruit are removed by the knife, and an annual supply 

 of young shoots is thus obtained. The leading shoots 

 are always shortened about two-thirds, and every bear- 

 ing twig is deprived of its top. In the early spring- 

 pruning, attention should be given that a supply of 

 male blossoms be left, and all suckers should be care- 

 fully eradicated. These Kentish nut-plantations some- 

 what resemble large quarters of gooseberry-bushes, few 

 of the trees exceeding six feet in height. For addi- 

 tional information, the reader may be referred to a pa- 

 per on this subject by the Rev. Mr. Williamson, in the 

 fourth volume of the Transactions of the London Hor- 

 ticultural Society. 

 14 



