SOME LEADING NUT TREES. 



307 



wild bear nuts nearly as large as the ordinary filbei't and 

 better in quality. In the prairie States the select varieties 

 have been cultivated in a small way, planted in roAvs only 

 two feet apart with five-foot spaces between the rows. 

 Growth is started by cultivation in the early part of the 



Fig. 83. — A, Male catkins of filbert ; S, female flowers of filbert. 

 (After Bailey. ) 



season, followed by mulching with leaves after the first of 

 July, which is cultivated in the soil the next spring. 

 After the plants attain bearing size, the mulching is con- 

 tinuous winter and summer, clipping the weeds that come 

 through the mulch. With this treatment and proper 

 pruning good crops, as large nearly as filberts, have been 

 harvested. Beyond all doubt a few years of culture and 

 selection will give native varieties as large as the best 



