184 
THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT. 
of the branches must not be suffered to exceed 
six feet. Every shoot that is left to produce 
fruit, should also be tipped, which prevents the 
tree being exhausted in making Avood at the 
end of the branch. 
The Filbert is a monoecious plant, and con- 
sequently produces the male and female blos- 
soms separately on the. same tree ; the slender 
scarlet filaments which are seen issuing from 
the end of the buds early in the spring, are the 
female, or productive blossoms; the barren, or 
male blossoms, are formed on long cylindrical 
catkins, which fall off as soon as they have per- 
formed their office ; in pruning, care must be 
taken to leave a due supply of these to fructify 
the female blossoms, or our previous trouble will 
be entirely useless ; this maybe done without 
difficulty, for they are perfectly visible at the 
time of the pruning. 
The method of pruning above detailed 
might in a few words be called a system of 
spurring, by which bearing shoots are pro- 
duced which otherwise would have had no 
existence. It frequently happens that a strong 
shoot springs from the 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, how- 
ever, be two or three years before the full 
effect will be produced. 
But though this method of cultivation has 
long been celebrated, yet it does not appear to 
me so particularly successful 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 possibly 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 following year. We know that peach and 
nectarine trees may be so pruned, as to force 
them to bear a superabundant quantity of fruit 
in some one year ; but we find that a regular 
crop in succession is thereby prevented, and 
that too for several years. In order to ensure 
fruit every year, I have usually left a large 
proportion of those shoots, which, from their 
strength, I suspected would not be so pro- 
ductive of blossom buds, as the shorter ones ; 
leaving them more in a state of nature than 
is commonly done ; not pruning them so 
closely as to weaken the trees by excessive 
bearing, nor leaving them so entirely to their 
natural growth, as to cause their annual pro- 
ductiveness to be destroyed by a superfluity 
of wood. These shoots, in the spring of the 
year, I have usually shortened to a blossom 
bud, for the reason before given. The. great 
art of pruning is to produce the greatest 
quantity of fruit without injury to the crop of 
the succeeding year, which, in my opinion, is 
not done by the Kentish method. But by 
observing the rule which I have laid down, 
though the trees do not perhaps bear so great 
a weight in any one year, as by the method 
before detailed ; yet the crops in the. whole 
certainly are not less ; with this great advan- 
tage both to the public and private grower, 
that a moderate but regular crop is ensured 
in every successive year. I think that by 
this plan the average weight in the whole will 
be greater. In the year 1819, which was a 
very productive one, I grew two hundred- 
weight of filberts, (weighed when gathered) 
upon fifty-seven trees, the greater part of 
which were not above six years old, (reckon- 
ing from the time of their being cut down,) 
and growing upon three hundred and sixty 
square yards of ground ; which is after the 
rate of twenty- seven hundred-weight per acre, 
and upon part of the ground ten more trees 
are now planted, which, if they had come to a 
bearing state, would have increased the quan- 
tity to more than is considered as an extra- 
ordinary crop, besides having grown upon the 
older trees a moderate but regular quantity 
for several years preceding. 
When the trees are grown on this plan, it 
is necessary, in order to strengthen the tree as 
much as possible, to eradicate the suckers from 
the root ; this is effected by exposing the roots, 
to a moderate distance from the stem, to the 
frosts of winter, and the necessary excavation 
is in the spring filled with manure. 
As Filberts are several years in coming to 
perfection, it is usual to plant hops, standard 
apples, and cherries, among them, and when 
they come to a bearing state, the hops are 
destroyed, and the fruit trees suffered to 
remain. The ground is then planted with 
gooseberries, currants, &c. and an under crop of 
vegetables is likewise frequently obtained. If 
