208 NUT GROWING 



between this and other species, but the hybrids are 

 not as yet in bearing. It may be that we shall even- 

 tually have hybrid trees carrying the very large 

 cluster characteristics of the tree hazel with nuts 

 of the size and quality belonging to the best Euro- 

 pean varieties. The common European hazels, C. 

 avellana, C. maxima, and C. pontica, in their many 

 varieties stand midway between the American hazels 

 and the Asiatic tree hazels in size, the bushes com- 

 monly growing to a height of fifteen feet in the 

 east. In the rich land of Oregon they nearly double 

 this size and become trees with trunks two or three 

 feet in circumference. Nuts of many of the varieties 

 of the European hazels command a high price both 

 as dried nuts and when sent to market in their green 

 husks. In some parts of Europe and in the 

 Mediterranean region hazel orchards furnish an im- 

 portant income for large districts. The European 

 hazels send out few stolons from the root, but there 

 is an allied phenomenon, the sending out of vigorous 

 new shoots from the trunk, crowding out the older 

 branches. The hazel orchardist trims out the older 

 branches from time to time, giving the newer growth 

 its opportunity and finding it more fruitful than the 

 older branches, because the old wood like that of the 

 American hazel has a limited number of years of 

 fruitfulness. 



Hazel nuts as large as hickory nuts are now arriv- 

 ing from Oregon orchards. The foreign hazel bear- 

 ing the largest nuts is the Pontine species, C. pontica, 

 but the shell is thick and on that account it has not 



