Downton Large Square.—Nut very large; shell thick and well-filled; husk smooth, shorter than the nut. A peculiarly formed semi-square nut, of the best quality.
Lambert's Filbert (Corylus tubulosa).—Nut large, oblong; shell thick and strong, the kernel being covered with a red skin; husk long, rather smooth, serrated at the edges, longer than the nut. A fine, strong-growing, free-fruiting variety. It is quite popular in California, where it has been in cultivation for twenty years or more under the name of Red Aveline. Specimens I have received from there were not as large as those raised in England, but this can be accounted for by the difference in climate. This variety is cultivated in Europe under various local names, as, for instance, Great Cob, Kentish Cob, Filbert Cob, and Large Bond Cob.
Grandis, or Round cob-nut.—Nut large, short, slightly compressed, very thick and hard; husk shorter than the fruit, much frizzled and hairy. This is supposed to be the true Barcelona nut of commerce, and is one of the finest grown. This is the large round hazel or filbert so largely imported for the trade in this country. It has many synonyms, and among them we may record Downton, Dwarf Prolific, Great Cob and Round Cob.
Purple-Leaved filbert.—Usually cultivated as an ornamental shrub in this country, but under proper treatment it is one of the most valuable for its fruit. Leaves very large, and of a deep purple color. Nuts and husk of the same color, which they retain until cut by frosts. Nuts large, an inch in length; husks much longer than the nut, and slightly hairy. The catkins are tender and become winterkilled in our Northern States, but if the pistillate flowers are fertilized by pollen from some more hardy plant, this purple-leaved filbert is exceedingly prolific. I have gathered eighty nuts from a small bush in my garden, the flowers of which had been fertilized from another variety in early spring.
Red filbert. Red Hazel, Avelinier Rouge.—Nut medium ovate, not long as in the tubulosa, or Lambert's filbert; shell thick; husk long and hispid. A very productive variety of good quality.
Spanish filbert.—Nut very large, oblong; shell thick; husk smooth, longer than the nut. A very large variety, sometimes confounded with the Round cob-nut and its synonyms.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH FILBERTS.
Believing that our failures are often of far more value, in the line of education, than our successes, I shall not hesitate to place my own on record as guideposts to those who may be seeking the most direct road to success in nut culture. Having had a rather extended and expensive experience in the cultivation of filberts, I propose giving a brief account of it here, with the hope that it may save some other enthusiast from losing time and money.
My attention was first specially drawn to these nuts in 1858,—while a resident of the city of Brooklyn, N. Y.,—by a neighbor who had a moderately large garden, on three sides of which he had planted a row of English filberts. These trees, at the time, had attained a hight of about fifteen feet, with broad, open heads, and they rarely failed to produce a heavy crop of nuts, which sold readily at very remunerative prices, for as they were always gathered in the husks and sold by the pound, the amount obtained from these few trees seemed to be enormous, considering the small space they occupied in this garden. The owner of these filbert trees, being an Englishman by birth, never tired of showing his English filberts to visitors, and of descanting upon their value, as well as upon the stupid indifference of the Yankees in neglecting the cultivation of these valuable nuts. I imbibed enough of my neighbor's enthusiasm to secure a good stock of his plants, a few years later, for cultivation in my grounds here. The third year after planting, quite a number of the bushes produced a fair crop of nuts, but I noticed that an occasional shoot was affected with blight, and these were immediately cut out and burned. The next season more of the branches were affected, and from these the blight extended downward on the main stems, and when these were cut away the sprouts from below made a very vigorous and apparently healthy growth, some reaching a hight of six feet the first season, but a year or two later these were also attacked and destroyed by blight.