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FILBERT 
^ i s r y 
■k JUN 1 3 1934 -Jr 
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In that section of the northwest located west of 
the Cascades we have one of the best nut growing 
regions in the world. Here filberts, walnuts and chest¬ 
nuts do as well or better than in their ancestral homes. 
Filbert orchards are thriving from Medford to the 
Britisxi Columbia line, wherever soil conditions suit. 
Filbert orcharding offers certain advantages not 
often found in other orcharding. The nut trees are 
long-lived, some orchards in England having been in 
commercial product on for over 200 years. While fil¬ 
bert trees require cultivation they do not require the 
pampering that is necessary with many other fruits. 
Their crops are far less perishable. Rain at blossom 
and at harvest s much less dangerous than with 
other crops. Thinning is unnecessary; spraying a small 
item; pruning not expensive and the filbert grower is 
not harassed by the mad rush that is present m tne 
harvest of perishable fruits. A minimum amount of 
labor and of equipment is required. Cas'd outlay in 
producing a crop is very small where one dees his 
own work, for most of the production costs are labor 
costs. 
The United States imports up to 25,000,000 pounds 
of filberts annually. This consumption has been reached 
without any organized effort to increase sales. What 
will lie the consumption of this fine nut wiien some 
real sales effort is put behind it? Why import all these 
nuts when our western nut is so superior? 
The wild hazelnut is the only nut native to the 
northwest. The filbert, its cultivated cousin, will soon 
become Lie dominant nut crop of this region. 
The pioneer Oregon and Washington filbert plant¬ 
ings were so successful that they inspired the plant¬ 
ings of many more orchards. Improved methods of 
filbert culture have been developed in recent years; 
pollenation is better understood, and now a group of 
new and greatly improved varieties of American origin 
are appearing that show promise of taking the places 
of the older European varieties. With these advantages 
the man w'no plants an orchard now has a right to 
expect even better results than were possible with the 
older planters. 
Nuts, which were formerly used almost altogether 
as a holiday treat, are now rapidly entering into the 
every-day diet and as meats become higher in price 
the use of nuts will undoubtedly continue to increase. 
Soils and Locations 
There are thousands of acres of land suited to 
filbert culture in every county west of the Cascade 
mountains and other thousands that are unsuited. Don’t 
plant on questionable soils, for in these days of tough 
competition only the best located and best cared for 
plantings will be most profitable. 
Filberts do best in soils that are well drained, 
fertile, retentive of moisture and which are deep enough 
to permit storage of winter rains enough to carry the 
trees through the dry summer months. If fertility is 
low it can be increased by use of cover-crops, manures 
and commercial fertilizers. 
Spacing 
Filberts are generally spaced 25 feet apart, which 
require < 0 trees per acre. A few growers are planting at 
15 feet apart, with the idea of taking out part of the 
trees, starting at about 10 years of age, when they 
begin to crowd. This closer planting takes 192 trees 
per acre. This is an excellent method of planting, pro- 
v ded the grower is sure he has the nerve to cut down 
10- to 12-year-o d trees just as soon as they begin to 
crowd adjoining trees, for such a spacing accommodates 
2% times as many trees as does the orthodox spacing 
of 25 feet and UP TO THE TIME THAT THE 
TREES ARE LARGE ENOUGH TO START CROWD¬ 
ING, THE YIELD PER ACRE IS GOVERNED BY THE 
NUMBER OF TREES PER ACRE, other conditions 
being equal. The dangerous feature of this close spac¬ 
ing is that so many growers will delay too long the 
time when they should start removing excess trees. 
Fall planting is to be preferred to spring plant¬ 
ing, where possible, for the fall-planted tree makes some 
root development during the winter and is ready to 
start growing earlier than is the spring planted one. 
Filbert trees are available from the nursery some time 
n November. Plow the land deeply before planting but 
don’t harrow it down if planted in fall. Leave the 
ground rough and it will weather down during the 
winter. 
Selection of Nursery Stock 
The selection of sturdy nursery stock that is true 
to name is very important. The novice in orcharding is 
easily confused by the cl ims of various 
nurserymen, each claiming eloquently that his strain is 
the only one to be planted and that his type of pro¬ 
pagation is the only type that will insure success. 
Filbert trees are propagated in various manners 
and a little knowledge of these different types of 
propagation is essential to the grower before he can 
intelligently select his trees. 
The original orchards of the northwest were from 
trees propagated from suckers. Then continuous layers 
were used, 5 to 10 new trees being taken from one 
layer. This type cf tree was weak and produced too 
many suckers so it was supplanted by the “tip-layer¬ 
ing” method, which produces one salable tree per lay¬ 
er. The lighter of these “tip-layers” is, in many nur¬ 
series, lined out in nursery rows and cultivated a yeaf 
before being placed on the market. This is then called 
a “nurseried” tree. The latest development is the 
“budded” tree. This tree started from a seed and after 
a year or two these seedlings are budded over to the 
desired varieties in the nursery rows and after a 
year’s growth a new trunk of the chosen variety is 
developed. These are called budded trees. 
Fine orchards can be found in this region that 
have been developed from each of these types of prop¬ 
agation. Some types of propagation have certain ad¬ 
vantages over others but first class orchards can be 
had from tip-layered trees, from nurseried trees or 
from budded trees. 
