STARTING THE ORCHARD 29 



the experiments made with mixed or double plant- 

 ing have been unsuccessful, or at least unsatisfactory ; 

 and there is at present in the general horticultural 

 mind an undoubted and fairly founded prejudice 

 against it. The waste of land, however, incident up- 

 on wide planting is so positive and obvious a hard- 

 ship that many men are willing to face the prejudice 

 and the bad results of earlier experiments in order 

 possibly to hnd some improvement for this condition. 



The general object of mixed planting or interplant- 

 ing is to increase the revenue of the orchard during 

 its early years. Whatever method of procedure, 

 therefore, will give the quickest and largest returns 

 without damage to the permanent apple orchard is 

 the method to be pursued. And if double planting is 

 to be practiced at all, the best method of mixing dif- 

 ferent trees in the orchard comes to be an interesting 

 practical problem. 



Before going further with this discussion, it seems 

 necessary to consider in detail "the objections usually 

 made to double planting and the arguments common- 

 ly presented in favor of it. 



The first and commonest objection is that the fillers 

 are never cut out when they ought to be. In many 

 cases fruit-growers seem to be ignorant of the time 

 when the fillers should be removed. They do not ap- 

 preciate that any damage is threatened from them 

 until long after the damage has occurred. In most 

 cases, however, the neglect is chargeable to the dis- 

 inclination of the fruit-grower to cut out temporary 

 trees which are giving him some regular income. It 

 has been repeatedly laid down as a rule that fruit- 

 growers will not do this. A good Nova Scotia fruit- 



