FOOTNOTES:
[9] The Norton name seems to be shared by a pecan and a hican. The Burton hican from Owensboro, Ky., is presumably a pecan-shagbark cross with an excellent nut, fruitful farther south.—Ed.
Preliminary Report on Growth, Flowering, and Magnesium Deficiency of Reed and Potomac Filbert Varieties
H. L. Crane and J. W. McKay[10]
During the course of filbert breeding investigations at the Plant Industry Station, Beltsville, Md., covering a period of approximately 18 years, the leaves of certain seedlings scorched badly in mid or late summer. Certain other trees showed little or no evidence of this disorder. It was thought that, because filberts thrive best under maritime climatic conditions of cool summers and mild winters, this scorch was probably due to high temperatures accompanied by deficient soil moisture.
This breeding work resulted in the introduction in 1951 of the Reed and Potomac varieties, which were produced as a result of crosses between the American filbert, Corylus americana, and the European filbert, C. avellana. The original trees of these varieties had been under observation for more than 10 years, and their performance had been such as to indicate their suitability for home plantings under eastern conditions. Furthermore, these varieties had shown little or no evidence of scorch and had held their leaves well.
In early spring of 1948, an experimental orchard, consisting of 36 layered trees each of Reed and Potomac, was planted at Beltsville, for the purpose of testing them more fully than had been possible before as to their suitability for eastern conditions. The orchard was designed also for study of their response in tree growth and fruiting to differential fertilizer treatments. Although this experiment has been underway now for only three years, certain of the findings are thought to be of such importance that a preliminary report should be made at this time.