NUTS. 445 



method of overcoming the difficulty of its culture in the United 

 States is discovered, we are likely to be dependent upon 

 foreign growths for supplies of this nut. 



The bushes are easy of cultivation and will often apparently 

 flourish, but they fail to bear fruit and the bushes are liable to 

 a disease which eventually kills them. The late Mr. N. S. 

 Fuller had probably more experience in growing filberts than 

 any other man in America, and his recent book on Nut Cul- 

 ture gives in detail his experiments and failures. 



In the States west of the Rocky Mountains the hazel be- 

 comes a tree of fifty or sixty feet, and is said to bear large 

 crops. 



The following description of the propagation, etc., of the 

 filbert is taken from " Nut Culture in the United States :" 



"Propagation. Propagation is effected by seed, by layers, 

 by suckers, by cuttings, and by grafting or budding. Grown 

 from suckers, trees come earliest into bearing, and by 

 some are claimed to make the strongest trees; but the 

 major portion of hazel trees produced in nurseries are 

 from cuttings, made eight or ten inches in length, from 

 last year's wood. They root as readily as gooseberries. 

 A moist, not wet, sand supplies the best ground in which 

 to root cuttings; a deeper setting is necessary in the 

 drier climate of the United States than in England. In 

 a year the cuttings become well rooted, and are then trans- 

 planted, after pruning, from the propagating-bed to the nur- 

 sery row. The nursery culture consists of thorough and fre- 

 quent stirring of the surface soil, and the training of each 

 plant to tree form. The sprouts and branches are kept re- 

 moved from about the base to a height of twelve inches (the 

 Germans claim that a height of from three to four feet for the 

 trunk is better) ; within the next six or eight inches the head 

 is formed of not less than six branches. In the midst of these 

 branches a barrel hoop is often placed, to which the limbs are 

 tied for forming a shapely and open crown. The aim of the 

 two or three years of nursery work is to grow the trees to six 

 or eight feet in height and in form like a goblet, after which 

 they are ready for planting. 



" Tn the Orchard. -The hazel will not thrive in stiff clay, 

 while in dry, sandy soil it becomes stunted and pro- 

 duces fruit of small size. Otherwise, the bush is not 



