ed to the
experience he is acquiring, will give him the background needed for more
difficult hybridizing.

Crosses made between filberts and hazels usually produce great changes
in the resulting fruit. J. F. Jones won considerable horticultural fame
from crosses he made between the wild American hazel known as the Rush
hazel, and such varieties of the European filbert as the Italian Red and
Daviana. Hazel and filbert cross readily and the resulting seedlings
will usually bear after only three or four years. For both these
reasons, they are good material for a beginner to work with. If the wild
hazel is to be used as the female, or mother, of the cross, it is
necessary to pick off all the male blossoms, or staminate blooms. This
should be done long before they begin to expand. The pistillate, or
female blossoms, should be enclosed in bags, about six of the
three-pound, common kraft bags should be enough. These are slipped over
those branches which bear female blossoms and are tied around a heavy
packing of absorbent cotton, which has been wound around the branch at
approximately the place where the opening of the bag will be. In
fastening the mouth of the bag around the cotton, I find that No. 18
copper wire, wrapped several times around and the ends twisted together,
is more satisfactory than string. This makes a pollen-tight house for
the pistillate blossoms but not one so air-tight as to cause any damage
to either the plant or blossoms.

In order to have pollen available at the proper time, it is necessary to
cut a few filbert branches which bear staminate blooms and store them in
a dark, cold place to prevent the pollen from ripening too soon. I
recommend keeping such branches in dampened sphagnum moss until it is
time for the pollen to ripen, or if a cold cellar is available, burying
the cut ends of large branches carrying male catkins one foot deep in
clean, moist sand. When the pollen is wanted, the branches should be
placed in a container of water and set near a window where sunlight will
reach them. Usually, after one day of exposure to bright sunlight, the
staminate blooms will expand and begin to shed their pollen. The pollen
may easily be collected by allowing an extended catkin to droop inside a
vial or test tube and then, as the catkin rests against its inner wall,
tapping the outside of the tube sharply with a pencil to jar the pollen
grains loose. A separate test tube must be used for each variety of
po