Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting | Page 6

8.79 Stamps and Canadian money redeemed by Treasurer 3.42 Balance
in Litchfield Savings Society 15.94 _____
Receipts $28.15 $ 28.15
Profit on Bus Trip at Washington 15.00 Memberships @ $3.50 old rate.
No Nut News 21 @ $3.50 73.50 Memberships @ $4.00 new rate. No
Nut News 3 @ $4.00 12.00 Memberships @ $4.50--$3.50 to Assn.
$1.00 to Nut News 2 @ $4.50 9.00 Memberships @ $5.00--$4.00 to
Assn. $1.00 to Nut News 43 @ $5.00 215.00 Memberships @ $5.00
without Nut News 3 @ $5.00 15.00 Membership @ $10.00--Mr. Ellis
10.00 Membership @ $10.00 with Nut News--Mr. Neilson 10.00
Miscellaneous Receipts 9.00 _____

Total Receipts $396.65 $396.65
DISBURSEMENTS
Refund to D. C. Snyder $ 2.00 Programs Washington Convention 25.00
Paid National Nut News 38.00 Membership American Horticultural
Society 3.00 C. A. Reed. Expense Washington Convention 6.70
Total $ 74.70 $ 74.70 Balance to account for $321.95 Litchfield
Savings Society $ 15.94 Cash on hand or in bank 306.01 _____
Total $321.95 $321.95

J. F. Jones' Experimental Work in Hybridizing Filberts and Hazels
By MILDRED JONES
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The first crosses of the hybrid filberts were made in the year 1919. The
small plants when taken from the nursery row were set 5 x 8 feet with
the thought in mind of taking out every other bush in the rows when
they began to crowd, and in case they were of value they could be
transplanted to a permanent place. It was not thought that many of the
plants would bear superior nuts promising enough to keep longer than
to observe the type of nuts the bushes bore. The first lot of plants, which
were mostly of the Barcelona cross, bore in the fall of 1924.
The object in view mainly was to produce, if possible, a variety or
varieties that could be made a commercial proposition here or
elsewhere in the eastern U. S. Not very much was thought at the time
about the flavor or the quality of the kernel. The main thought was to
get away from the corky substance adhering to the kernel of the most of
the filberts. Barcelona, the main commercial nut in the West, has a lot
of this, which makes the kernel unattractive and is probably more or
less injurious to the digestive system because of the tannin content.
After this fault was eliminated it was going to be necessary to work for

size and quality of the nut.
The filbert blight has not been found on our place, so not much stress
was put on the point of producing a blight-resistant or blight-free
filbert. Probably if we had the filbert blight we would consider it more
seriously.
The method used in crossing these hybrids was to remove the catkins
on the pistillate plant at any time before they developed and scattered
their pollen. The wood containing the catkins to be used for pollinating
was observed closely in order to bring it in at the same time with the
Rush pistillates by cutting and holding back in a cold cellar after the
catkins were swelling well. This was the Barcelona which blooms very
early.
The Italian Red, Cosford and Giant De Halles bloom later than the
Rush so this was another problem. These were forced by cutting and
putting in a sunny window. In cutting wood for pollinating, the cuttings
should be large. The stored up starch in the wood then gives the catkins
more to draw on. Apparently the filbert catkins and pistillates develop
entirely from the stored up starch in the wood and do not draw on the
roots at all. This being so it was figured they would develop just as well
off the bush.
The last pollinating on the Rush was done in the spring of 1921. The
catkins appeared to be all right and the limbs were cut and stored in
the cellar. These were taken from the DuChilly. Finding they did not
respond promptly to warmth it was seen that the catkins were drying up
and getting stiff. As Father was very anxious to use this variety he tried
soaking the limbs in water and then exposed them to the sun. Some of
the catkins only swelled and then appeared to stop. The soaking was
then repeated making it several hours and again they were exposed to
the sun and warmth. Most of them developed nicely after this treatment.
As those on the bush dried up and turned black it was thought probably
the pollen used after treated as just mentioned was not good, but the
pistillates developed promptly after being pollinated and the bush
produced a large crop of nuts. I suppose these had been injured in the
winter, but it would seem surprising that they could be made to develop

artificially and the pollen be good.