A MEMBER:  Are any of your hybrids a success?

DR. MORRIS:  There are none in bearing as yet.  Byzantines are little, if any, larger than American hazel nuts, excepting from selected trees.  Pontines are much larger.  Both plants make a remarkably vigorous growth.

THE PRESIDENT:  Do I understand that this Merribrooke hazel, put in the middle of an acre will fill the acre?

DR. MORRIS:  I believe this is true.  I don’t think it is an exaggeration.  The wild hazel is a nuisance in Connecticut.

THE SECRETARY:  I know they will cover a very large space, but I cannot tell how they get there.

THE PRESIDENT:  The point I am trying to get after is this, not the exact extent of spread but the method of propagation.  Can we get a sprout from a good tree, and then have it go on sprouting indefinitely?

DR. MORRIS:  Yes, that is true.

A MEMBER:  In your experience are fungicides useful in handling the blight?

DR. MORRIS:  I have not used them.  I have talked with nurserymen who did, and they say the blight got the best of them just the same.  They left the matter with employees, who did not give proper attention.  This was perhaps because they did not know that a small jack-knife was better than a spraying outfit for the purpose.

A MEMBER:  Once on, will it stay?

DR. MORRIS:  Yes, until the blight area has circled the limb.

A MEMBER:  What is the difference between the cobs and the
filberts?

DR. MORRIS:  The cob nut is generally a round nut.  The filberts are longer nuts.  “Filbert” is a corruption of “full beard,” and refers to the involucre extending beyond the nut.

DR. SMITH:  We may now proceed to the next number on the program, if the hunger for hazel knowledge abates.  Members of this association have topworked pecans, hickories, etc.  I followed the instructions of members of this association in my work and have had some success.  Some workers report splendid success mixed with very great failures, so we may be encouraged to the very top notch, and the next spring we come back feeling very different.  Last fall I was as large almost as a beer barrel with the gratification that followed the setting of 100 English walnut buds.  I have adopted the motto “Blessed is he that rejoices early, or he may not rejoice at all.”  In March there were about ten or twelve alive.  In June about nine were alive, and now these also have failed to grow.  Last year I knew just how to bud walnuts.  This last Fourth of July I was very humble.

For some reason or other we have not all the facts.  We can propagate splendidly one year, and the next year we have a fall-down.  Mr. Roper, of one of the pioneer nurseries, said he had 2,000 fine live walnut buds last fall, and had but 500 this spring, and not one of them grew.  While the technique seems to be simple, there seems to be something lacking in our experience.  I will ask Mr. Littlepage to give us his confessions first.