xhausted
soil. All filberts or hazel plants are naturally inclined to produce a
number of suckers or young shoots grown from the root, they should be
removed as soon as they appear, it will stop when the plants grow older.
Standard trees with a short stem say 10 to 15 inches should be planted
in the orchard, if such plants could be had. It should be our aim to try
to grow and prune them with that point in view to raise such plants, as
they are then easily taken care of. This actually brings us to the
operation of pruning our hazel plants, which is in every way quite an
important part of the growing of hazel nuts. At the time of planting all
plants should be cut back, the same as is done to any shrub or tree when
newly planted, but after that the hazel being more a shrub than a tree
should be pruned every year with the center well kept open all the time,
all weak and unnecessary wood or branches in the middle of the plant
should not be cut back but entirely removed, also the young growth of
most of the branches should be removed to just below the terminal bud of
the previous years growth, as I will show you on a branch I have brought
with me.

If we will treat the plants in our hazel orchards as herein described we
should not experience any difficulty in raising a fairly good crop of
nuts, if the proper varieties are selected. Insects have so far not
troubled in the least, a few tent caterpillars appeared in its season,
but were soon destroyed by birds. We should not allow our hazel plants
to grow too tall, 12 to 15 feet should be the maximum height, after that
the tall growing branches should be greatly reduced, or gradually
removed, as there is generally young growth enough to take their places.

During the severe winter of 1919 and '20 most all catkins or staminate
blossoms above the snowline in our nursery were frozen, also part of the
wood of a few varieties were more or less frozen, of which due notice
has been taken. They will be closely observed during the coming winter.
Only a few of the staminate blossoms that were well covered under snow
developed perfectly and the result was a very small crop of nuts on most
of the varieties, but all the varieties had some, even those more or
less frozen plants. It plainly shows that but a very few catkins are
necessary for pollenization, even over a wide area. There will be
failures caused by climatic or atmospheric disturbances in our hazel
orchards as well as in all other