ants. To prune or graft
them? Not at all. At that time I did not know anything about such
skilled labor. I was merely told to weed and hoe them and to keep them
clean. It was not just very elegant work, but, ladies and gentlemen, I
enjoyed very much indeed, every minute so employed among those young
filbert bushes. I became really attached to them and knew practically
every plant in the plot, and almost believe they knew me, too.

Now what was the reason for this immense pleasure I found in working
among those plants? Was it perhaps from the commercial or financial
point of view, the future income from them for fruit or when the plants
reached a saleable age? Not at all. I was then too much of a boy and did
not comprehend such a thing as that. It was merely the fond and pleasant
recollection of my childhood, of my boyhood, when, together with other
children, in the proper season, we went hunting for the common hazel
nuts, the _Corylus avellana_, as the gathering of these nuts is one of
the greatest pleasures of the German country child, and to roam through
fields and woods in late summer in those beautiful September days, when
the foliage of trees and bushes begin to color, when the birds of the
garden, field and forest begin to assemble for future migration, when
goldenrod, asters and other field flowers are reaching their greatest
beauty, then, ladies and gentlemen, the hazelnut has reached maturity.
The nut itself is a very beautiful brown color, the outer bark a golden
yellow, the leaves of the plants slightly colored with bronze, pink or
yellow, a most beautiful combination, a pleasure to look upon, and a
sight never to be forgotten. Whoever has had an opportunity to see and
admire a well fruited hazel plant, at the time of maturity, will agree
with me that it is a thing of beauty, not only during the fruit bearing
season, but in fact throughout the whole winter, with the handsome
staminate flowers or catkins appearing very abundantly in early fall,
and remaining throughout the winter, until late spring. Of all these
pleasures, these beautiful sights, etc., of which a vivid and fond
recollection caused all the pleasures in cultivating the above mentioned
hazel lot, we need not be deprived in our otherwise so richly blest
country. It is true that, at the present time, we have no American
native hazel, that can fully compete with the better European varieties,
but we hope that in time not far off, through scientific h