protein and oil, are balanced so well that they approach nearer than
most other nuts the ideal food make-up essential to man. The English
walnut contains much oil and protein while both chestnuts and acorns
consist largely of carbohydrates.

One salient feature which definitely separates the species Corylus
Americana or wild hazel, from others of its genus, is its resistance to
hazel blight, a native fungus disease of which it is the host.
Controversies may occur over the application of the names "hazel" and
"filbert" but there is no dispute about the effect of this infection on
members of genus Corylus imported from Europe. Although there is wide
variety in appearance and quality within each of the species, especially
among the European filberts, and although filberts may resemble hazels
sufficiently to confuse even a horticulturist, the action of this fungus
is so specific that it divides Corylus definitely into two species.
Corylus Americana and Corylus cornuta, through long association, have
become comparatively immune to its effects and quickly wall off infected
areas while filbert plants are soon killed by contact with it. Hybrids
between filberts and hazels will usually be found to retain some of the
resistance of the hazel parent.

The ideal nut of genus Corylus should combine qualities of both hazels
and filberts. Such a hybrid should have the bushy characteristics of the
American hazel with its blight-resisting properties and its ability to
reproduce itself by stolons or sucker-growth. It should bear fruit
having the size, general shape, cracking qualities and good flavor of
the filbert as popularly known. The hybrids I am growing at my farm,
which I call "hazilberts" and which are discussed later, seem to fulfill
these requirements. The plants may be grown as bushes or small trees.
They are blight-resistant and their nuts are like filberts in