e one
considered. The minimum size depends on the section from which the
hazels are being taken, no kernel which is less than 3/8" in its longest
dimensions being considered. While sometimes it requires a good deal of
hunting to accomplish it, I have never had to take bushes where the
kernel was smaller than this and it is seldom that it is necessary to
take those where the kernel is as small as this. In many instances it
is very much larger. If the size is satisfactory the kernel is then
eaten, only those bushes having well flavored kernels being taken. If
all tests are satisfactory the cloth is removed and a wooden label put
on the bush which is then dug. The nuts are removed from the bush and
put in a paper bag labeled the same as the bush; the bush is cut back to
about 6" in height and then put in a sack or other convenient means for
keeping moist till it can be put into the ground.

The gathering of the above mentioned trees in a small compass and
closely observing them have enabled me to make a number of observations
which may be of interest.

_Fertility of Soil:_ The importance of this was shown strikingly in the
case of a lot of Japan walnuts received in the spring of 1918. They were
quite large and seemingly never had been transplanted and were dug with
small roots. For lack of a better place they were set in sod ground
which had not been cultivated or fertilized for many years. They eked
out a miserable existence during the years 1918 and 1919. During the
spring of 1920, I put chickens in that patch and an improvement was
noted that year but this year practically every tree has grown six feet
or more. The manure of the chickens and the thorough cultivation of the
soil caused by their scratching have certainly worked wonders. While I
do not minimize the effect of clean cultivation, I am inclined to
believe that abundant plant food is the really important thing, for a
goose watering pan under a tree pushes the tree along at a remarkable
rate, and geese never scratch. They do keep the grass closely cropped,
supply an abundance of manure, and the watering pan puts the plant food
where the trees can get it.

_Pruning:_ The importance of severely cutting back was strikingly shown
this spring. A butternut raised from a nut in a lot of "Virginia"
butternuts, bought in a nut store and which had outgrown every other
tree in that lot and which I believe to be a Japan walnut butternut
hybrid was transplanted this sprin