Corylus avellana.

Varieties

Frizzled, great bearer. Red (C. tubulosa), pellicle of kernel pink, flavour excellent. White, pellicle white, flavour good. Cosford, great bearer, good; shell very thin. Down-ton, large, square. Cob Nut.

Propagation

This is done by planting the nuts, by layers, suckers from the root; and by grafting and budding.

By The Nuts

This should be done in October; but if postponed until spring, preserve the nuts in sand, and in February plant them in drills near two inches deep. The plants will appear in six or eight weeks, which, when a year old, plant out in nursery-rows, and there train them two or three years. In raising these trees from the nut, the sorts are not to be always depended on, for, like other seedling trees, they often vary, so that the most certain method to continue the respective sorts is by layers.

By Layers is one of the most certain methods of continuing the respective varieties distinct; and this is a very easy and expeditious method of propagation; for every twig layed will readily grow: therefore, in autumn or winter, let some of the lower branches that are well furnished with young shoots be pegged down in the ground; then lay all the young shoots in the earth, with their tops out, every one of which will root, advance in length, and be fit to transplant by autumn following, when they should be separated, and planted in nursery rows, two feet asunder, and trained as observed of the seedlings; but when any considerable quantity are to be raised this way, it is eligible to form stools for that purpose, by previously, a year before, heading-down some trees near the ground, to throw out a quantity of shoots near the earth, convenient for laying for that use annually.

Suckers arising from the roots of trees raise by either of the above methods, if taken up in autumn, winter, or spring, with good fibres, will also grow, form proper plants, and produce the same sort of fruit as their parent plant; and suckers of these may also be used for the same purpose.

By Grafting And Budding

These methods have also the same effect as layers of continuing any particular variety with certainty, and the operation is to be performed in the usual way on stocks of any of the varieties of this ge-n us. - (Abercrombie).

"The season for planting is autumn or spring; or any interval in mild weather from October till the beginning of March. Allot detached standards not less than ten and thence to twenty feet distance, to have room to branch out in full heads." - Loudon, Enc. Gard.

Soil

"A hard loam of some depth, on a dry subsoil, which dress every year; as the filbert requires a considerable quantity of manure." - Loudon, Enc. Gard.

Pruning And Culture

Mr. R. Scott says, "The plants should be trained with single stems to the height of a foot or so; then permitted to branch into a symmetrical head, rather open in the middle, and not of greater height than a man can conveniently reach from the ground, to perform the necessary operations of pruning and gathering.

"The proper time for pruning is in the spring, when the male blossoms are open, as then the shaking of the trees, by the act of pruning, assists in the diffusion of the pollen. The young shoots should be shortened to about half their length; and it is best to cut to a bud that shows a female blossom. All suckers should be carefully removed. Formerly it was the practice to train the branches to nearly a horizontal position, which may still be seen in many old plantations; but experience has shown that the trees produce equally well, and as good nuts, by allowing them to take a more natural form. By way of manuring, some cultivators throw off the surface soil two or three feet wide round the stem of the tree, and into this basin the small prunings, leaves, etc, are put and dug in." - Gard. Chron.

Preserving

"The easiest and best method is to gather them when quite dry, and stow them away in large garden pots, or other earthen vessels, sprinkling a little salt amongst them throughout the whole mass, which preserves the husks from getting mouldy and rotten; the pots should then be turned bottom upwards on boards, and buried in the ground, or kept air-tight by some other means. Stoneware jars, with lids, might be advantageously used for this purpose, and nuts of any kind will keep a long time in this way." - Gard. Chron.

Insects. See Curculio and Aphis.