Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eleventh Annual Meeting: Washington, D. C. October 7 and 8, 1920
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eleventh Annual Meeting: Washington, D. C. October 7 and 8, 1920
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
If we will treat the plants in our hazel orchards as herein described we
should not experience any difficulty in raising a fairly good crop of
nuts, if the proper varieties are selected. Insects have so far not
troubled in the least, a few tent caterpillars appeared in its season,
but were soon destroyed by birds. We should not allow our hazel plants
to grow too tall, 12 to 15 feet should be the maximum height, after that
the tall growing branches should be greatly reduced, or gradually
removed, as there is generally young growth enough to take their places.
During the severe winter of 1919 and '20 most all catkins or staminate
blossoms above the snowline in our nursery were frozen, also part of the
wood of a few varieties were more or less frozen, of which due notice
has been taken. They will be closely observed during the coming winter.
Only a few of the staminate blossoms that were well covered under snow
developed perfectly and the result was a very small crop of nuts on most
of the varieties, but all the varieties had some, even those more or
less frozen plants. It plainly shows that but a very few catkins are
necessary for pollenization, even over a wide area. There will be
failures caused by climatic or atmospheric disturbances in our hazel
orchards as well as in all other orchards which we cannot control nor
prevent, but that should not discourage us as long as the prospects of
fair crops are otherwise all right, the selecting of varieties, the
proper pruning of our plants, the control of insects and the location of
our hazel orchard is all in our power and should, if properly exercised,
almost guarantee a fair crop and insure a fair profit from each acre so
planted, providing the proper varieties are selected. Before coming to a
close with my paper it seems to me justice is not quite done to the
hazel proposition if I would not mention the beauty and pleasure
thereof, the beautiful appearance of an hazel orchard and the pleasure
and enjoyment it affords us, not from a financial point of view only in
gathering the nuts, etc., but from other sources as well. No other
orchard will in a comparatively short time appear more like a natural
grove than the hazel on account of its characteristic compact growth and
dense foliage, so attractive and inviting to our song and other
insectivorous birds for hatching and rearing their young, the constant
warbling of the different birds from early spring until late in summer,
the building of their nests, the feeding of the young, all affords
endless pleasure and enjoyment to the close observer. Now October is
here, quietness reigns in field and forest, also in the hazel orchards
birds are silent, a number of them departed for warmer climates, others
ready to leave us, butterflies and other insects have disappeared, nuts
have been gathered, and the leaves are falling, death, decaying and
destruction seems to be dominating all around us, but our hazel
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