214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



attributed to eating chestnuts from blighted trees, and until 

 official veriticatiou or refutation of such assertion is ob- 

 tained it would be better to abstain from eating chestnuts 

 from trees affected by the blight, and even from those grow- 

 ing in regions where the blight is present, even though the 

 particular tree may show no evidences of it. 



The Filbert. — No native hazel large enough to be worth 

 propagating has been brought to notice. This is a pity be- 

 cause the native hazel is practically immune to a blight that 

 attacks the large imported filbert and destroys it before 

 profitable crops are born. On the Pacific coast, however, 

 the disease seems not to be present, and the nut is success- 

 fully gTown. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture might keep 

 the blight under control, but what we must work for is a 

 good filbert that is immune, by selection from native types 

 or crosses with the foreign filbert. Such experiments are 

 under way, and when the desired result is obtained a prom- 

 ising field of nut culture Avill be opened, for the filbert is 

 very hardy, of rapid growth and early maturity, productive, 

 easy of cultivation and adapted to many soils and climates. 



It is the nut from which to get quick results, to tide over 

 the period of waiting for other nut trees to mature. As 

 fillers between such other trees the filbert ought also to be 

 valuable. 



Conquering the filbert blight is one of the most important 

 problems of nut gTowing. 



The Iliclcories. — Of this family of about sixteen mem- 

 bers, all native only on the North American continent, the 

 first in importance, at the present time, is the pecan. Its 

 great development in the south has been spoken of, but it 

 has also a future in the north. 



It gTOws as a native in southern Indiana and the neigh- 

 boring States, where immense trees are found in large groves 

 <tf pure stand, and some of the nuts are almost the equal 

 of the southern pecan in size, and equal, if not superior, in 

 quality. The pecans of this locality have received the gen- 

 eral name of " the Indiana pecan." The best of them are 

 being commercially propagated and can be bought in quan- 

 tity. How far north of its native habitat it can be moved. 



