150 



On the Cultivation of the Filbert. 



root ; and should any of the first year's or leading branches 

 be decayed, or become unproductive of bearing wood, it will 

 be advisable to cut that entirely away, and suffer the new 

 shoot to supply its place, which afterwards is to be treated in 

 the same manner as is recommended for the others. 



Old trees are easily induced to bear in this manner, by 

 selecting a sufficient number of the main branches, and then 

 cutting the side shoots off nearly close, excepting any should 

 be so situated as not to interfere with the others, and there 

 should be no main branch directed to that particular part. 

 It will however be two or three years before the full effect 

 will be produced. 



But though this method of cultivation has long been cele- 

 brated, yet it does not appear to me so particularly success- 

 ful as to deserve the encomiums which have been bestowed 

 upon it; for though thirty hundred weight per acre have 

 been grown in particular grounds, and in particular years, 

 yet twenty hundred weight is considered a large crop, and 

 rather more than half that quantity may be called a more 

 usual one ; and even then, the crop totally fails three years 

 out of five ; so that the annual average quantity cannot be 

 reckoned at more than five hundred weight per acre. 



When I reflected upon the reason of the failure happening 

 so often as three years out of five, it occurred to me, that pos- 

 sibly it might arise from the excessive productiveness of the 

 other two, the whole nourishment of the trees being expended 

 in the production of the fruit; and that, consequently, they 

 might be unable properly to mature the blossom for the fol- 

 lowing yenr. We know that Peach and Nectarine trees may 

 be so pruned, as to force them to bear a superabundant 



