20 New Hampshire Experiment Station [Bulletin 223 



USE OF FILLERS 



From Table 1 we learn that a little o\'er 26,000 trees, or 7.5 per cent of 

 the total, are classified as fillers. There are se\'eral methods of planting 

 fillers, and under some plans they will remain in the orchard much 

 longer than under others. Probably in the majority of cases the 

 fillers are trees which will be removed at from between 20 and 30 years 

 of age. 



The practice of using fillers is followed for the most part in the 

 counties in which commercial orcharding has developed to the great- 

 est extent. Thus, in Hillsboro and Merrimack counties the proportion 

 is almost exactly the same as that for the whole state. In Rockingham 

 County, 15 per cent of the trees are fillers, this figure undoubtedly being 

 influenced to a considerable extent by one or two huge orchards in 

 which the trees have been i)lanted at relatively clo.se distances. Car- 

 roll and Cheshire County each have nearly five per cent of fillers, but 

 in the others the proportion drops oft" rapidly. 



The varieties of trees used for fillers are shown in Table 5 and the 

 age of filler trees as a group is shown in Table 6. Early bearing is one 

 of the requisites of a filler. In the group of filler trees between 5 and 

 9 years of age, 55 per cent are bearing. In permanent trees of the same 

 age group only 32 per cent have reached bearing. Evidently the 

 fillers have been correctly chosen for early production. 



The proportion of each imiiortant variety planted for filler purposes 

 has been noted in the previous discussion. The bulk of the filler trees, 

 or practically 69 per cent of the total, are chosen fi'om fall varieties. 

 Wealthy furnishes slightly more than 33 per cent. Mcintosh ranks 

 next to Wealthy in total number of filler trees. A nuich smaller pro- 

 portion of the total plantings of Mcintosh are in filler positions; but 

 because the Whole number planted is so nuich greater, there are 8,334 

 Mcintosh fillers as compared to 8794 Wealthy. While a high propor- 

 tion of the Wageners are fillers, the total plantings of this variety are 

 relatively small so that there are only 4,841 Wagener fillers. The re- 

 mainder is scattered among several fall and winter varieties of lesser 

 importance. 



Whether or not the use of fillers is a good practice is a question upon 

 which not all fruit growers are agreed. Some believe that they can 

 get a larger return by planting early bearing apples in their orchards 

 than by using any other kind of intercrop. Others believe that the 

 expense of growing these trees is not justified for the short period 

 during which they can produce before they crowd the permanent tree. 

 While this can only be estimated approximately, it is certain that the 

 ''overhead" cost of producing apples is much higher with filler than 

 with permanent trees. 



Practically all of the fillers are young trees, about 98 per cent of 

 tliem being under 15 years of age. The jiractice of i)lanting fillers evi- 

 dently began with the growth of the orchard indu.stry dating about 1910. 

 Not many will be removed during the next ten years, the period when 



