[Illustration: FIG. 40. ENGLISH FILBERT ORCHARD, FIVE YEARS FROM SEED.] [Illustration: FIG. 42. EXTRA LARGE HAZEL SEEDLING OR ROUND ENGLISH FILBERT.] [Illustration: FIG. 41. VARIETIES OF FILBERTS AND HAZEL SEEDLINGS.] At the close of the first season the plants were from one to two feet high and quite stocky, with a mass of small fibrous roots. The next spring they were transplanted into nursery rows, and set about one foot apart. The third spring I laid out about one acre for a specimen filbert orchard, and after the ground had been thoroughly prepared, the plants were set ten feet apart in the row, and twelve between the rows. No crop was planted among the trees, but the ground was kept clean and free from weeds during the summer, with cultivator and harrow. All suckers springing from the base of the stems were removed as soon as they appeared, and under such treatment the plants made a vigorous growth. Two years later quite a number of the trees came into bearing, these showing that I was likely to have nearly as many varieties in my orchard as there were trees. Some of the varieties might be better than the parent, but the greater part were certain to be inferior in size. The fourth year after planting in the orchard the trees gave me a heavy crop of nuts, and they made a fine appearance as one looked down between the long rows, as shown in Fig. 40. But this season my old enemy, the filbert blight, appeared again, and branches and main stems began to blacken and the leaves to wither. But I had bushels of nuts and in great variety, and by sending specimen baskets of the long-husk varieties to dealers in New York, learned that there was an almost unlimited demand for such nuts, at prices ranging from thirty to seventy-five cents per pound, if sent to market in their fresh, half-ripened husk; but later on, when the nuts have fallen out and become thoroughly ripened, as when imported, ten cents a pound may be considered an average price for the larger varieties. Several of these are shown in Fig. 41, of natural size and form. Another extra-large hazel is shown in Fig. 42. The fifth year after planting, my specimen filbert orchard had suffered so much from blight that it appeared as shown in Fig. 43; but a few dozen trees have been reserved, the rest being removed and reduced to ashes. [Illustration: FIG. 43. FILBERT ORCHARD STRUCK WITH BLIGHT, FIFTH YEAR FROM SEED.]