204 NUT GROWING 



AMERICAN HAZEL 



The American hazel growing in bush form does 

 not grow properly for economic development on its 

 own roots. The habits of the species vary in dif- 

 ferent localities, but in Connecticut the central bush 

 seldom bears nuts for more than seven or eight 

 years with a good bearing period of not more than 

 three years. The bush extends by sending long 

 stolons underneath the ground in every direction, so 

 that next to the central bush is a circle of bushes a 

 year younger and so on to the margins of the patch. 

 The hazel patches extend widely into the pastures 

 in this way, central bushes dying out as younger 

 ones arise full of ambition. The young bushes com- 

 monly bear a small crop of nuts in the third year, 

 a very large crop in the fourth year and after that 

 a rapidly dwindling crop so long as the bushes live. 

 I have tried the experiment of cutting back stolons 

 for the purpose of throwing all of the strength of 

 the root into the original bush in order to make it 

 live and bear for a longer period of time. Appar- 

 ently about two years of extra life and bearing pe- 

 riod were gained in this way, but the method was 

 not practical, because Nature had made the hazel too 

 "sot in its ways," or, to state the matter in another 

 way, the protoplasm refuses to respond to stimu- 

 lating hormones excepting for a period decreed by 

 laws of evolution. Our next resource consisted in 

 grafting the common American hazel of selected 

 kinds upon the stocks of European and Asiatic 



