HAZELS AND FILBERTS
In October 1921, I ordered from J. F. Jones, one hundred plants of what
is known as the Rush hazel which was, at that time, the best known of
the propagated hazels. In ordering these, I mentioned the fact that I
expected to get layered plants or grafted ones. Mr. Jones wrote me at
once to say that the plants he had were seedlings of the Rush hazel
which are said to come very true to seed, but that if I did not want
them as seedlings he would cancel the order. Rather than lacking a
profitable filler between the orchard trees, I accepted the order of one
hundred plants and received from him a fine lot of hazels which took
good root and began to grow luxuriantly. It was several years before any
of them began to bear and when one or two did, the nuts were not hazels
at all, but filberts and hybrids. In most cases these nuts were larger
and better than those of the original Rush hazel.
One of these seedlings grew into a bushy tree ten or twelve feet high.
For several years it bore a crop which, though meager, was composed of
large, attractive nuts shaped like those of the common American hazel
but very unlike the true Rush hazelnut. One year this tree began to fail
and I tried to save it or propagate it by layering and sprouting seeds.
Unfortunately it did not occur to me at that time to graft it to a wild
hazel to perpetuate it. I still lament my oversight as the tree finally
died and a very hardy plant was lost which was apparently able to
fertilize its own blossoms.
I ordered four Winkler hazel bushes from Snyder Bros. of Center Point,
Iowa, in March 1927, asking them to send me plants that were extra
strong and of bearing size. I planted these that spring but the
following summer was so dry that all four died. I ordered twelve more
Winklers in September for spring delivery, requesting smaller ones this
time (two to three feet). Half of these were shipped to me with bare
roots, the others being balled in dirt for experimental purposes. Four
of the latter are still living and producing nuts.
In April 1928, I planted a dozen Jones hybrid hazels but only two of
them survived more than two years. I think the reason they lasted as
well as they did was that around each plant I put a guard made of laths
four feet high, bound together with wire and filled with forest leaves.
I drove the laths several inches into the ground and covered them with
window screening fastened down with tacks to keep mice out of the
leaves. Although somewhat winter-killed, most of the plants lived during
the first winter these guards were used. The second winter, more plants
died, and I didn't use the guards after that.
The two Jones hybrids that lived produced flowers of both sexes for
several years but they did not set any nuts. One day while reading a
report of one of the previous conventions of the Northern Nut Growers'
Association, I discovered an article by Conrad Vollertsen in which he
stressed the importance of training filberts into a single truncated
plant, allowing no root sprouts or suckers to spring up since such a
condition prevents the bearing of nuts. I followed his advice with my
two Jones hybrids and removed all surplus sprouts. This resulted in more
abundant flowers and some abortive involucres but still no nuts
developed. In the spring of 1940, I systematically fertilized numerous
pistillate flowers of these plants with a pollen mixture. On the
branches so treated, a fairly good crop of nuts similar to those of the
orthodox Jones hybrid appeared.
I had cut off a few branches from the Jones hybrids when I received them
and grafted these to wild hazels. This had been suggested by Robert
Morris in his book, "Nut Growing," as an interesting experiment which
might prove to be practical. It did not prove to be so for me for
although the grafting itself was successful I found it tiresome to
prune, repeatedly, the suckers which constantly spring up during the
growing period and which are detrimental to grafts. Although they lived
for five years, these grafts suffered a great deal of winter-injury and
they never bore nuts. The one which lived for the longest time became
quite large and overgrew the stock of the wild hazel. This same plant
produced both staminate and pistillate blossoms very abundantly for
several seasons but it did not set any nuts in spite of the many wild
hazels growing nearby which gave it access to pollen. It is now known
that this hybrid is self-sterile and must have pollinators of the right
variety in order to bear.
My next work with members of the genus Corylus was discouraging. In
April 1929, I bought one hundred hazel and filbert plants from Conrad
Vollertsen of Rochester, New York, which included specimens of the Rush
hazel and of the following varieties of filberts:
Italian Red
Merribrook
Kentish Cob
Early Globe
Zellernuts
White Lambert
Althaldensleben
Medium Long
Bony Bush
Large Globe
Minnas Zeller
Marveille de Bollwyller
Although many of these filberts bore nuts the first year they were
planted, within two years they were all completely winter-killed.
In 1932, I received ten filbert bushes from J. U. Gellatly of West Bank,
British Columbia. These consisted of several varieties of Glover's best
introductions and some Pearson seedlings. I planted them on the south
side of a high stone wall, a favorable location for semi-hardy plants.
They appeared to be thrifty and only slightly winter-killed during the
first two years but by 1939, all but two of the bushes had died or were
dying. Although as nut-bearing plants they have been of little value to
me, their pollen has been of great service.
I found an unusually fine wild hazel growing in the woods on my farm and
in 1934, I began an experiment in hybridizing it. I crossed the
pistillate flowers of the native hazel with pollen from a Gellatly
filbert and obtained four hybrid plants, which I have called hazilberts.
In the spring of 1940, three of these hybrids had pistillate flowers but
no staminate blooms. As I was very eager to see what the new crosses
would be like, I fertilized the blossoms with a gunshot mixture of
pollen from other plants such as the Winkler hazel, the European filbert
and the Jones hybrid hazel. Certain difficulties arose in making these
hybrids, mainly due to the curiosity of the squirrels who liked to rip
open the sacks covering the blossoms which were being treated. Deer
mice, too, I found, have a habit of climbing the stems of hazel bushes
and gnawing at the nuts long before they are mature enough to use for
seed. Later I learned to protect hybrid nuts by lacing flat pieces of
window screening over each branch, thus making a mouse-proof enclosure.
Even after gathering the nuts I discovered that precautions were
necessary to prevent rodents from reaching them. The best way I found to
do this is to plant nuts in cages of galvanized hardware cloth of 2 by 2
mesh, countersunk in the ground one foot and covered completely by a
frame of the same material reinforced with boards and laths.
The most interesting hazilbert that has developed bears nuts of
outstanding size, typically filberts in every detail of appearance,
although the plant itself looks more like a hazel, being bushy and
having many suckers. After more testing, this hybrid may prove to be a
definite asset to nursery culture in our cold northern climate,
fulfilling as it does, all the requirements for such a plant. The second
hazilbert resembles the first closely except that its nuts, which are
also large, are shaped like those of Corylus Americana. The third
hazilbert has smaller nuts but its shell is much thinner than that of
either of the others.
In reference to the hazilberts, I am reminded of certain correspondence
I once had with J. F. Jones. He had sent me samples of the Rush hazel
and although I was impressed by them, I mentioned in replying to him
that we had wild hazels growing in our pasture which were as large or
larger than the Rush hazelnuts. I admitted that ours were usually very
much infested with the hazel weevil. Mr. Jones was immediately
interested in wild hazels of such size and asked me to send him samples
of them. He wrote that he had never seen wild hazels with worms in them
and would like to learn more about them. I sent him both good and wormy
nuts from the wild hazel bush to which I had referred. He was so
impressed by them that he wished me to dig up the plant and ship it to
him, writing that he wished to cross it with filbert pollen as an
experiment. I sent it as he asked but before he was able to make the
cross he intended, his death occurred. Several years later, his daughter
Mildred wrote to me about this hazel bush, asking if I knew where her
father had planted it. Unfortunately I could give her no information
about where, among his many experiments, this bush would be, so that the
plant was lost sight of for a time. Later Miss Jones sent me nuts from a
bush which she thought might be the one I had sent. I was glad to be
able to identify those nuts as being, indeed, from that bush.
In the spring of 1939, I crossed the Winkler hazel with filbert pollen;
the European hazel with Winkler pollen; the Gellatly filbert with Jones
hybrid pollen. These crosses produced many plants which will be new and
interesting types to watch and build from. I have already made certain
discoveries about them. By close examination of about forty plants, I
have been able to determine that at least five are definitely hybrids by
the color, shape and size of their buds. This is a very strong
indication of hybridity with wild hazel or Winkler. On one of these
plants, about one-foot high, I found staminate bloom which I consider
unusual after only two seasons' growth.
During the fall of 1941, I became interested in a phenomenon of fruit
determination previous to actual fructification of the plant by detailed
examinations of its buds. I noticed, for instance, that large buds
generally meant that the plant would produce large nuts and small buds
indicated small nuts to come. The color of the buds, whether they were
green, bronze green or reddish brown, could be fairly well depended
upon to indicate their hybridity in many cases. These tests were not
wholly reliable but the percentage of indication was so high that I was
tempted to make predictions.
At that time, hazilbert No. 1 had not borne nuts. The bush resembled a
wild hazel so much that I had begun to doubt its hybridity. Upon
examining its buds, I found indications in their color that it was a
hybrid, although the nuts apparently would not be large. It would be an
important plant to me only if its pollen should prove to be effective on
the other hazilberts. At the time this was only a wishful hope, because
the pollen of the wild hazel, which this plant resembles, apparently
does not act to excite the ovules of either filberts or filbert hybrids
with filbert characteristics. Pure filbert pollen seemed to be
necessary. In 1942, its pollen did prove to be acceptable to the other
hazilberts and my hope for a good pollinizer was realized in it.
From the conclusions I reached through my study of the buds, I made
sketches of which I believed the nuts of No. 1 would be like in size and
shape. In March 1942, these sketches were used as the basis of the
drawing given here. A comparison of this drawing with the photograph
taken in September 1942, of the actual nuts of hazilbert No. 1 show how
accurate such a predetermination can be.
I am convinced from the work I have done and am still doing, that we are
developing several varieties of hazilberts as hardy and adaptable to
different soils as the pasture hazel is, yet having the thin shell and
the size of a European filbert. As to the quality of the kernel of such
a nut, that of the wild hazel is as delicious as anyone could desire.
[Illustration: _3/4 Natural size Filberts_]
[Illustration: _3/4 Natural size Hazilberts and Winkler Hazel_]
[Illustration: _31/32 of actual size Hazilberts. Left to right: No. 3,
No. 5, No. 4, No. 2_]
[Illustration: _No. 1 Hazilbert about 9/15/42. Note almost identical
size and shape of this actual photograph of No. 1 compared to
predetermined size and shape in drawing made almost one year previous to
photograph. Plant had not produced any nuts prior to crop of 1942_]