lbert blight, presumably because we are isolated
from the wild hazel, which harbors this blight. Dr. MacDaniels has had
trouble with his planting at Ithaca with filbert mite.
With this introduction, which is mostly varieties and breeding, because
that seems to be my interest, I'd like to call on some members of the
panel to get their experiences. Mr. Snyder raises nut trees in Iowa
where winter injury is probably much more serious than we have at
Geneva. At Geneva we have a fairly respectable climate and can get a
crop of peaches about nine years out of ten. In Iowa they have a lot
more sunshine, and I think probably sharper drops of temperature than we
have at Geneva. I'd like to have Mr. Snyder tell us what his experiences
have been with filbert varieties.
MR. SNYDER: I really didn't know that I was to be on this panel until I
got here. I thought I was on the hickory panel. As Mr. Slate says, our
climate is more severe that that at Geneva. We can get the very hardiest
peaches to bear about two years out of three, and the trees are severely
injured in between. So that will give you a little idea as to the
climate in that respect.
We made quite a planting at one time, maybe 30 of the Jones hybrids, and
they did quite well for several years, and then between the
winter-killing and the blight most of them are dead now. The Winkler, of
course, is an Iowa nut and was introduced by our people and did very
well for a number of years but has backed out on us the last several
years, too, I believe due to this same mite trouble that Dr. MacDaniels
reports in New York. They just don't bear. The bushes are quite healthy,
and we get plenty of catkins, but we don't get any nuts to amount to
anything.
We have a little bush of the Mandchurian hazel. It isn't worth
mentioning as a nut producer, but it does have very attractive foliage
and seems to be entirely healthy, produces perhaps three to five nuts a
year on a bush as high as your head. You may be familiar with it. The
foliage is very distinct from anything I know. The leaves are truncate
at the end, cut off quite square, with just a little point in the
middle.
MR. SLATE: I don't have that.
MR. SNYDER: That is standing our conditions all right, and several years
ago Mr. Reed sent us what he said at the time were Chinese tree hazels,
but later he retracted and said that they were not Chinese tree hazels
but they were hybrids of the Chinese tree hazel. There were four o
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