THE FILBERT. 



cultivated in the South of England, more especially in Devonshire, for its 

 fruit, as well as its timber. The nut is brought to table roasted, and eaten 

 with salt, or with salt fish, or stewed in cream. In Spain and Italy, it is 

 used as an article of food, boiled, roasted, in puddings, cakes, and bread. 

 In France and Italy there are a great many varieties in cultivation, and 

 upwards of twenty have been grown in the Garden of the Horticultural 

 Society, of which the Downton and Prolific are among the best. For a 

 small garden, the Chataigne exalade of the South of France deserves the 

 preference, not only as producing the best fruit of all the varieties for the 

 table, but on account of the tree being an abundant bearer, and of so small a 

 size that it might be very well grown as an espalier. The varieties are pro- 

 pagated by grafting on the species. The fruit is produced in the same 

 manner as that of the walnut, and every other particular respecting its cul- 

 ture is much the same as for that tree. 



SuBSECT. XYll.— The Filbert. 



1260. The Filbert, Corylus Avellana, L. (Noisette, Fr. ; Nussbaum, 

 Ger, ; Hazelnoot, Dutch ; Avellano, Ital. Span. ; E. B. 723, Arh. Brit., 

 iii. p. 2017, and Encyc. of Trees and Shrubs, p. 921), in a wild state is 

 the hazel-nut, common in woods in many parts of Europe, on loamy 

 soils. Its use in the dessert is familiar to every one. By cultivation 

 several varieties have been obtained, of which the best are the red and 

 white filbert, and Cosford, which ought to be in every collection ; the cob- 

 nut, because its branches grow more upright than the other varieties; 

 and the great cob-nut, the Downton large square nut, and the Spanish 

 nut, on account of their large fruit. All these varieties are usually propa- 

 gated by grafting on the common hazel-nut, or on the Spanish nut, which 

 grows very fast, and differs from all the others in not sending up suckers. 



The plants should be trained to a single stem, from a foot to two feet in 

 height, and then be permitted to branch into a symmetrical head, nather 

 open in the middle, and not of greater height than a man can conveniently 

 reach from the ground to perform the necessary operations of pruning and 

 gathering." (Gard. Chron., 1841, p. 51.) The fruit is produced from the 

 preceding year's wood, and in unpruned trees is always most abundant at 

 the extremities of the branches, where the leaves of the preceding year have 

 had abundance of light and air. Hence the importance of pruning so as to 

 keep the bush open in the centre. The spring, at the time the male blos- 

 soms are shedding their pollen, is the best time for pruning, as by the 

 shaking of the trees the pollen is diffused. The young shoots should be 

 shortened to half their length, cutting to a female blossom, and removing all 

 side suckers. If a plantation is to consist of a single row, the plants may be 

 placed from eight feet to ten feet apart ; but if there are to be several rows 

 together, the intervals between them may be ten feet or twelve feet. The 

 whole may be treated like a plantation of currants on a large scale. The 

 usual situation for a plantation of filberts is the orchard, where single rows 

 may be introduced, for a few years, between rows of standard fruit-trees. If 

 a separate plantation of filberts is formed, currants or gooseberries may be in- 

 troduced in the intervals between the plants for four or five years — care being 

 taken to destroy them whenever their branches are within a foot or two of the 

 filberts. A plantation of filberts will last twenty years, and if occasionally 

 manured, it will produce from 20 cwt. to 30 cwt, of nuts per acre 



