have been grown in the gardens of this country for
at least a hundred years. Writers on pomology make little reference to
this nut, but according to Mr. Fuller, nurserymen's catalogs listed
hazel varieties all through the early part of the last century. It was
believed that the hazel promised much for the gardener and the general
planter who wished for early returns. The species seemed capable of
readily adapting itself to cultivation, and being a shrub rather than a
tree, it required little space. It could be cultivated along with other
garden products at little additional expense for labor. Being an early
bearer it doubtless appealed strongly to the normal American demand for
quick returns.

Nevertheless, this nut met with its mortal foe in the way of a native
fungus which in a great many sections has proved entirely too much for
the European species. Where once this species was well represented up
and down the Atlantic Coast, few of its representatives are now to be
found.

Some early attention in these Eastern States has been paid to the
almond, another foreign species. It is supposed that this nut is a
native of the Mediterranean basin. Just when it was first tried on the
Atlantic Coast is not known, but of the nuts thus far mentioned it has
proved to be the least promising for the Eastern section. Sometimes said
to be "as hardy as the peach," it has been found to be the most exacting
in its requirements of soil and climate of any important nut now grown
in this country. Except with certain of the hardshell varieties, no
almonds are now known to be in any sense successful east of the Rocky
Mountains. According to Wickson (E. J.) in his _California Fruits_, the
almond is known to have been introduced into California previous to
1853. At that time efforts to build up an almond industry on the Pacific
Coast began to assume a somewhat serious air. After a half century of
trials and more or less persistent effort by the California planters the
culture of this nut has developed into the third most important nut
industry in the United States. As for the time being, the growing of
Persian walnuts centered in southern California, so did the growing of
almonds in the Sacramento Valley of northern California.

During the whole of this period of early American nut growing history,
little attention in any part of the country was paid to the native nuts.
However, in the southeastern part of the United States there existed a
l