President Reed: We use the side grafting, but we cut the top off.
Mr. Vollertsen: I would like to ask Dr. Morris with regard to the stock. Don't you think the fact that that tree was moved at the time it was, so soon after grafting, had something to do with the retarding of the sap and causing the tree to mature the wood it did in place of making more growth?
Dr. Morris: That might be. All of the expert horticultural opinions brought to bear on this are valuable. Every suggestion that has been made has had a meaning. It requires explanation.
President Reed: If there is nothing further along that line, we have with us Mr. Conrad Vollertsen, of Rochester, who has been asked to prepare a paper; and we would like to hear from him. He is an expert in the filbert, and I believe can give us some valuable information. (Applause).
HAZEL NUTS AND FILBERTS
Conrad Vollertsen, Rochester, N. Y.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of this Convention: I have been approached by a member of the Northern Nut Growers' Association to prepare a paper to be read at this convention on the growing, cultivating, and propagating of the European hazel, together with such other topics on the subject, as would be of interest to the members of this association, particularly my experience and observations during the last three or four seasons in my hazel orchard and nursery.
Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am not a public speaker nor a public writer; my business is nursery and garden work; I can use spade and pick more freely than pen and ink, and, therefore, fear that I am not the right party called upon, knowing as I do, that we have members in this association far more capable and experienced, and who possess more knowledge about the European hazel than ever I had. Nevertheless as the growing and planting of the European hazel in the eastern and middle states of our country so far, both for ornamental or commercial purposes, has been more or less experimental, I think all practical information on the subject should be welcomed, and therefore I have consented to prepare this paper and hope it will be accepted for what it stands.
A number of years ago, after leaving school, I entered a large nursery and garden establishment in Germany, as an apprentice boy, to learn the garden business, to become a gardener and horticulturist, to learn how to raise trees and other plants, to learn how to graft, to prune and cultivate, and, in general, to take care of all kinds of growing plants. One of the first duties bestowed upon me in my new place was the charge of a large plot of young hazel or filbert plants. To prune or graft them? Not at all. At that time I did not know anything about such skilled labor. I was merely told to weed and hoe them and to keep them clean. It was not just very elegant work, but, ladies and gentlemen, I enjoyed very much indeed, every minute so employed among those young filbert bushes. I became really attached to them and knew practically every plant in the plot, and almost believe they knew me, too.