hree relatives before it was possible
to set any on my own land. The principal thing gained from these early
plantings was experience and the principal things learned were things
not to do, for none of the trees then planted are alive today. Buying my
present place in Baldwin, at the close of 1916 gave me about three acres
available land and since then I have been gathering grafted, budded or
otherwise asexually propagated trees of all the fine varieties that we
have. At present there are on my place some

14 varieties of black walnuts
2 " " butternuts
12 " " Persian walnuts
4 " " Japan walnuts
14 " " chestnuts
20 " " pecans
25 " " hickories
23 " " hazels
4 " " almonds

The only nut tree, native in the northeastern United States of which I
have no named variety is the Beech.

In addition there are seedling trees of four additional species of
walnuts, seedlings from several hybrid walnut and hickory trees, besides
some thousands of seedling nut trees of practically all species for use
as stocks.

I have for the past two years been gathering selected native hazels from
the various sections of the United States taking care to select bushes
that bore nuts that were relatively large, thin shelled and fine
flavored.

Inasmuch as the hazel is native all over the country, and just how to
get bushes that bear the best nuts is not generally known, I will tell
how I do it, hoping that many others will seek out the best hazels in
their section and get them into cultivation. I provide myself with a
cloth about as large as a large handkerchief, a number of wooden labels,
some paper bags, a hand vise, a pair of calipers, a scale and tools for
digging plants. A spade or round-nose shovel is about the best tool for
digging the plant and frequently a hatchet, axe, mattock, or bar is
required in addition in case the hazels have to be dug away from among
the roots of large trees or from among stones of considerable size.

When a plant is found where the nuts look promising the branch on which
nuts are to be examined is marked temporarily by throwing the cloth over
it. A nut is then carefully cracked in the hand vise, taking pains to
extract the kernel whole. This is then calipered with the calipers, set
at a minimum size desired. If it is undersize the bush is rejected and
another sought. In measuring the longest dimension is th