Page 26 



BETTER FRUIT 



The Use' "of Fillers in An Apple Orchard 



By N. D. Peacock, Horticultural Instructor, University of Georgia 



THE average man is impatient. He 

 wants to see the results from his 

 work at once, or he is not satisfied. 

 It is exactly this that has prevented 

 many men from starting an apple 

 orchard. In all probability that has 

 been a good thing for the industry be- 

 cause it has kept the kind of men who 

 would have become discouraged and 

 given up at the first disappointment 

 from starting at all. 



To set an orchard and care for it 

 for seven or eight years, or perhaps 

 even longer, without any financial re- 

 turn requires considerable patience 

 and perseverance, as well as a large 

 amount of capital. In order to re- 

 duce this long wait as long as possible 

 two systems have been developed. One 

 of these is a system of intercrops, that 

 is, some cash crop is grown between 

 the trees while they are young. The 

 other is a system of fillers. By fillers 

 ■we mean trees which are planted 

 temporarily between the permanent 

 Ones in the orchard. These trees are 

 varieties, such as Yellow Transparent 

 or Wealthy, which come into bearing 

 early and are rather short-lived, the 

 intention being to cut them out when 

 they begin to crowd the permanent 

 trees. Very frequently a combination 

 of these two systems is worked out 

 successfully, and the orchard made to 



pay for itself during its period of 

 growth. 



The planting of fillers in an orchard 

 has given very satisfactory results in 

 some cases, while in others it has 

 proved to be very harmful. The cases 

 where unsatisfactory results were ob- 

 tained should not be held entirely 

 against the system itself, because they 

 have usually followed failure to re- 

 move the temporary trees, when the 

 proper time came, as was recommend- 

 ed. It is very easy to talk about allow- 

 ing the fillers to remain in the orchard 

 just a certain number of years, but it 

 is quite a different thing actually to 

 cut them out when the time comes. In 

 all probability at that time the tempor- 

 ary trees will be bearing very profit- 

 able crops while the permanent ones 

 will only just be coming into bearing. 

 Therefore, removing the fillers will be 

 cutting off the source of income, neces- 

 sitating another wait of a year or two. 

 Such a practice is decidedly against 

 human nature and requires consider- 

 able self-control. Thus we may say 

 that the question, whether or not you 

 should plant fillers resolves itself into 

 the question: How much have you? 

 If you are very sure that you will give 

 the permanent trees first place in your 

 consideration, and cut out the fillers 

 when they begin to crowd, then the 



M Vou ibc man? 



If so, Better Fruit offers you 

 a chance to make good money 



We want a representative in every fruit-growing community. In every such 

 community there is some individual with a little time each month to spare, who, by 

 representing Better Fruit, can make a,good income. 



Perhaps it will be an elderly man? 



A young fruit-grower just getting started.' 



A wife who wants to help out? 



An ambitious boy or girl who wants to make extra money? 



We want someone in your community to become our permanent representa- 

 tive — to secure new subscriptions for us and renew old ones. 



We want two or three representatives in the Hood River Valley. Several in 

 Yakima and Wenatchee — in the Willamette Valley, Rogue River, etc. In fact we 

 want permanent representatives in every fruit district of the West. 



Our proposition is a good one. Are you the man or woman for the job? 



Write today, stating your qualifications. 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon 



December, iQip 



plan can be made profitable and can 

 be recommended to you personally. 



Under most conditions it is best to 

 use the same kind of trees for fillers 

 as are used for the permanent ones. 

 That is, use apple fillers for an apple 

 orchard, and peach fillers for a peach 

 orchard. The reason for this is that 

 if a different kind of temporary tree 

 is used, times will occur when methods 

 of care needed by the fillers will be 

 worthless, or perhaps harmful to the 

 permanent trees. At such times it is 

 a great temptation to care for the fill- 

 ers and neglect the others because the 

 fillers are producing your Income. For 

 example, if peach trees are used as 

 fillers in an apple orchard, they may 

 suffer from winter injury at some time 

 and be weakened in vitality while the 

 apple trees are uninjured. In that 

 case the peach trees would require a 

 heavy application of fertilizer in order 

 to enable them to mature the crop 

 properly. The apples, on the other 

 hand, perhaps were just coming into 

 bearing; and, should the fertilizer be 

 applied, they would at once stop bear- 

 ing and begin an extravagant produc- 

 tion of wood, which would delay fruit- 

 ing several years. Evidently the fertil- 

 izer should not be applied in such 

 case, even though the peach crop suf- 

 fered. 



I have said that generally the apple 

 fillers should be used in an apple 

 orchard, but there are many excep- 

 tions to every rule, and in this case 

 there are many men who have made 

 marked success with peach fillers in 

 an apple orchard. Their success with 

 that system is due to the fact that they 

 held the welfare of their permanent 

 trees uppermost in their minds and 

 arranged their cultural practices ac- 

 cordingly. 



Very probably a person who has 

 nerve enough to cut out the fillers 

 when they begin to interfere with the 

 permanent trees will also have fore- 

 sight enough not to injure his future 

 prospects for the sake of a little pres- 

 ent gain. For such a man the system 

 may he highly recommended as a 

 means to reduce the cost of growing 

 an orchard; but for any other person 

 it is a very dangerous system. 



Apple Packing Record Broken 

 Mid-Columbia apple packing records 

 were broken recently by Miss Pearl 

 Saltzman. In four hours and 40 

 minutes she packed 140 boxes of fruit, 

 more than the average packer will pre- 

 pare in a day. 



Churches Were Full of Apples 

 Hood River churches were recently 

 bulging with apples. All edifices in 

 which regular services were not being 

 held were secured for storing New- 

 towns. In other churches the base- 

 ments are filled with fruit. All avail- 

 able space in local business houses has 

 been requisitioned for apple storage. 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



