h to keep longer than to
observe the type of nuts the bushes bore. The first lot of plants, which
were mostly of the Barcelona cross, bore in the fall of 1924.

The object in view mainly was to produce, if possible, a variety or
varieties that could be made a commercial proposition here or elsewhere
in the eastern U. S. Not very much was thought at the time about the
flavor or the quality of the kernel. The main thought was to get away
from the corky substance adhering to the kernel of the most of the
filberts. Barcelona, the main commercial nut in the West, has a lot of
this, which makes the kernel unattractive and is probably more or less
injurious to the digestive system because of the tannin content. After
this fault was eliminated it was going to be necessary to work for size
and quality of the nut.

The filbert blight has not been found on our place, so not much stress
was put on the point of producing a blight-resistant or blight-free
filbert. Probably if we had the filbert blight we would consider it more
seriously.

The method used in crossing these hybrids was to remove the catkins on
the pistillate plant at any time before they developed and scattered
their pollen. The wood containing the catkins to be used for pollinating
was observed closely in order to bring it in at the same time with the
Rush pistillates by cutting and holding back in a cold cellar after the
catkins were swelling well. This was the Barcelona which blooms very
early.

The Italian Red, Cosford and Giant De Halles bloom later than the Rush
so this was another problem. These were forced by cutting and putting in
a sunny window. In cutting wood for pollinating, the cuttings should be
large. The stored up starch in the wood then gives the catkins more to
draw on. Apparently the filbert catkins and pistillates develop entirely
from the stored up starch in the wood and do not draw on the roots at
all. This being so it was figured they would develop just as well off
the bush.

The last pollinating on the Rush was done in the spring of 1921. The
catkins appeared to be all right and the limbs were cut and stored in
the cellar. These were taken from the DuChilly. Finding they did not
respond promptly to warmth it was seen that the catkins were drying up
and getting stiff. As Father was very anxious to use this variety he
tried soaking the limbs in water and then exposed them to the sun. Some
of the catkins only swelled and then appeared to sto