Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the sixth annual meeting: Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915 — John Shaqi
Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the sixth annual meeting: Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the sixth annual meeting: Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
If the members of the Association will examine these Cryptosporella
specimens which are passed about, and if they will dispose of the blight
according to directions, I feel that the hazel question involving a
matter perhaps of millions of dollars worth of investment has been
settled.
Among the foreign hazels which will thrive in this country the Byzantine
hazel, _Corylus colurna_ is by all means the most beautiful. It makes a
tree as large as the ordinary oaks, and in Hungary I have seen a trunk
three feet in diameter at a short distance above the ground. I have been
told that a single tree of this species will sometimes bear about twenty
bushels of nuts at a single crop. This presumably refers to the nuts in
their large involucral mass,--say four or five bushels of husked nuts.
The wood of these species is hard, takes a high polish and is valuable.
The tree itself is strikingly beautiful as the members will observe this
afternoon when examining the Byzantine hazels which Superintendent Laney
will show us in one of the Rochester parks.
This species of hazel in some of the localities about the Black Sea is
said to form almost the entire source of income over large districts.
The nuts are not large, as a rule averaging about like those of our
common American hazel in size, quality and thinness of shell. Grafted or
budded stocks may be made to bear large thin-shelled nuts. I am using
this hazel at present for grafting stock for choice foreign species and
varieties of other kinds, and for the American hazel, although it may be
that the American hazel will not respond well to so large and vigorous a
stock in the long run. Nuts and nursery stock may be obtained through
French nursery firms.
The reason why the Byzantine hazel has not been planted widely in
America as yet, is because we have not advanced that far in
civilization,--people have not happened to think about it. We must leave
something for the people who are to come five thousand years after us,
and not think of all good things at once.
The Byzantine hazel appears to be quite free from the blight and this,
perhaps, is due to its thick corky bark, which is in itself an
attractive feature. In some individuals the corky bark stands out in
ridges almost like that of the corky elm. The beauty of the European and
Asiatic hazels, in general, makes them extremely desirable for
ornamental purposes in parks and in dooryards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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