Mr. Wilcox: They have never had any trouble with the blight.
President Morris: How long do they keep them in the nurseries?
Mr. Wilcox: We keep them to six or eight feet.
President Morris: Do you have the common hazel abundant?
Mr. Wilcox: Yes, along the water courses.
President Morris: This blight is more apt to attack the exotics, and over where Mr. Kerr lives there are no native hazels. He happens to be on an island. He started Europeans where we have no American hazels, so that accounts for his immunity.
Mr. Reed: His trees are practically all dead now. He has given up.
President Morris: That has been the history everywhere. That is the last instance I have been able to find of successful raising of hazels. One line, it seems to me, offers promise—that is the making of hybrids. I am making hybrids between the American hazel and various European and Asiatic.
Mr. Rush: I have had some experience with the hazel. I have exchanged with Mr. Roody of Washington. He has sent the Barcelona and Du Chilly, and they are growing very hardy without the least indication of blight. There are two kinds of American hazels. I have them growing as large in the bush as twenty to twenty-five feet. And then we have a small bush. The small type is worthy of propagation. The Barcelona and Du Chilly are thickly set with catkins this fall, and by all indications there will be a very nice crop next summer.
President Morris: The rule is they begin to blight about the fifth year. About the eighth they are gone.