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the trees. We set them, as I suggested in speaking of our 

 measuring boards, at 16^4 feet apart each way. This is 

 close planting, but that is what we wanted. It is not what 

 we should advise for a great many men, perhaps for only a 

 very few, because with most men the trees will not be cut out 

 when they begin to crowd each other, nor will they be pruned 

 in such a way as to prevent crowding as long as possible. 

 Both of these points we intend to look out for. We have used 

 w^hat is called the " filler system ; " that is, our permanent 

 trees are set 33 feet apart, but are interplanted both ways so 

 as to bring the trees down to I6I/2 ^^et apart. For these 

 fillers we are using such early bearing varieties as Wealthy, 

 Mcintosh and Duchess of Oldenburg^ and for our perma- 

 nent trees such sorts as Baldwin, Hubbardston, Greening 

 and Gravenstein. We intend to practice repressive pruning, 

 to head the trees in every year, so that they shall not begin 

 to crowd for as long a period as possible. It ought to be pos- 

 sible to delay this crowding until they are fifteen years old, 

 at the very least. But when they do begin to crowd, we are 

 going to cut out the fillers and leave the entire land for the 

 permanent trees. And right here is where the difficulty 

 usually comes in, — most men will not cut out their fillers 

 in time; I hope and believe that we will. It ought not to 

 be any more difficult than pruning. When we prune, we 

 cut away part of the tree for the good of the rest of the tree, 

 and when we remove fillers we cut out some of the trees en- 

 tirely for the good of those that remain. We may have to 

 tell the foreman to cut out the fillers, and then go away our- 

 selves and stay away till the job is done ; but one way or 

 another I expect to see those fillers come out before they have 

 damaged the permanent trees. 



The whole question of fillers narrows down to this : if a 

 man can use fillers and bring them into bearing early enough 

 so that they will be more profitable than growing an annual 

 crop between the trees, and if he will then cut out the fillers, 

 as suggested, it is a profitable scheme ; but if he fails in 

 either of these particulars, then the plan is a failure. Some 

 people object to the filler scheme because, they say, the tree 



