144 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DOUBLE PLANTING AND FILLERS. 



There are few farmers who care to or can afford to plant an orchard, 

 cultivate, prune and fertilize it properly without getting back some re- 

 turns for the investment and labor before the trees produce profitable 

 crops. This difficulty may be overcome by growing shorter lived fruits, 

 such as raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, or such annual, 

 cultivated crops as corn, beans, potatoes, or peas, among the trees. If 

 such a plan is adopted, the owner should realize that he must make 

 greater efforts to conserve the moisture and fertility of the soil, or his 

 orchard will permanently suffer. The planting of bush fruits is seldom 

 advisable in a large commercial orchard, for they interfere so seriously 

 in so many orchard operations, especially spraying. The using of fillers 

 or early bearing and maturing varieties should not be undertaken by 

 any except those who are determined and willing to remove them when 

 they begin to crowd the permanent trees, or Avhen the permanent trees 

 come into full bearing. 



Pears should seldom be planted among apples, as they require radi- 

 cally different methods of cultivation. Peaches or plums are being 

 largely used as fillers, and with considerable success on fas'orable loca- 

 tions. Their usefulness is about over at 12 or 15 years, but even if not, 

 they should be removed for convenience in caring for the orchard, and 

 to avoid crowding the permanent trees. 



If apples are to be used as fillers, such early bearing varieties as 

 Wagener, Grimes, Duchess, Wealthy, or Yellow Transparent, may be 

 used, and then it would be well to plant the permanent trees somewhat 

 farther apart than common. 



MIXED PLANTING. 



Many varieties will not bear well when planted alone, or in large 

 blocks. 



This is because they require the pollen from blossoms of other varie- 

 ties. Inasmuch as all varieties benefit by cross pollination, it is a good 

 thing to plant four or five rows of one variety and then four or five 

 rows of another, and so on. If the orchardist finds his trees barren from 

 lack of cross-pollination, he may graft every fourth or fifth tree of every 

 fifth row to some variety having commercial value, blossoming at the 

 same time and having an affinity for the barren variety. 



