302 
soil and when the vines have spread sufficiently to keep down the 
weeds. : 
The crop should be harvested before the first frost (when ripe 
the tops begin to dry up). For that purpose the tap-reots of the 
plants are cut deeply with the hoe, or, if the field be large, a plough 
with the mould board removed and with a “sword” or long-cutting 
flange welded to the point is run down each side of the row. The 
plough is run deep enough to cut the tap-root without disturbing the 
pods. Some dig the plant up by the aid of a close-pronged fork, 
and the root portion, with the pods adhering, is exposed to the sun 
to dry. When wilted, the earth is shaken off the roots of the plants, 
which are loosely stacked round a pole six or seven feet high, in 
small stacks which will not heat. After a few weeks the nuts may 
be picked off the vines and stored in a dry and well-aired place, 
prior to being screened and sorted for marketing. Where the dry 
vines are not consumed by stock they should be returned to the 
ground, to be ploughed in. 
The green and unripe pods are less oily than the ripe ones, and 
more easily digested; they are pleasant eatmg when reasted. 
An average yield is about 10ewt. per acre, or about 50 bushels, 
weighing 22 to 30lbs. according to the plumpness of the kernel. The 
wholesale market value runs from 214d. to 3d. per Ib. 
At the Hamel Experimental Station Mr. Berthoud grew several 
kinds, viz., Tanjore, Barbadoes, Mauritius, and White Valencia, 
which all did well, but would, I have no doubt, have yielded better 
still if grown on a moist marl or in calcareous soil in the 
warmer portions of the State. At Port Darwin and in the, Kim- 
berleys pea nuts do well; under moderately favourable conditions 
crops of 50 bushels are obtained. In Queensland the average yield 
of the crop is 1,675lbs. (56 bushels), valued at £21 per acre. 
Tue Fiupert and Cop-nuts (Corylus Avellana). 
These nuts are improved varieties of the common hazel nut of 
the woods of Europe. These small nuts have not been sufficiently 
er. 
Cob. Filbert. 
grown yet in Western Australia to ascertain what measure of success 
their cultivation promises. Jn California, which in so many respects 
