FILLER 
27 
Fillers 
Fillers and intercrops are used in young orchards to get returns from 
tne ground before the permanent trees come into bearing. (Do not con- 
tuse them with cover crops, which are used in old as well as young 
orchards to improve the soil. See page 21.) 
A young orchard is an expense before it comes into bearing, and even 
atter it conies into bearing there is a strip of ground between the rows 
tnat wiU not be used by the young trees for some years. Many successful 
truit-growers plant early-bearing trees, small fruits, and other crops 
between the rows, not only to get full use of the ground, but to make 
these crops pay a profit over and above the cost of developing the 
permanent orchard. ^ 
George T. PoweU, weU known to New York and Eastern fruit- 
growers, has taken our money-making crops of fruit from the same 
grounds. He says: 
"I have made $340 an acre at Orchard Farm, Ghent, N. Y., 
trom four crops of fruit on the same ground. The apple trees, 
planted 40 feet apart, were not in bearing. Between them 
peaches were interplanted 20 feet apart, currants 5 feet apart, 
and strawberries in between. The currants paid $75 to $100 
an acre, peaches $140, and strawberries $100." 
_ Mr. E. N. Plank, President of the Arkansas State Horticultural So- 
ciety, says: 
"I set apple trees 32 feet apart each way. Between these, 
one way I set peach trees and four-year-old peach trees have 
averaged over $1.00 per tree. Having 44 trees to the acre, 
orchard returns of $44 per acre are very acceptable, three to 
tour years after you have set out your orchard. I have also 
set strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries between the rows 
of fruit trees, and one year after the orchard was set I have 
received sufficient returns to pay for the land, fruit trees, and 
the cost of putting out and cultivating the strawberries." 
Many orchardists find blackberries too hard to get rid of when it 
is time to take them out. 
Prof. C. I. Lewis, Oregon Experiment Station, Corvallis, Oregon, 
"Where irrigation is practiced, probably one of the most 
successful crops grown among trees in the Northwest is the 
strawberry. 
"We do believe that the best opportunity to diversify the 
apple ranch — especially where the lands are high-priced and 
where there is an overhead cost, taxes,- and interest on the 
investment, of from $30 to $50 an acre — is by the growing of 
more than one kind of fruit, and with alfalfa or clover, which 
should be fed to live stock on the ranch. We doubt very much 
if there are many types of farming other than fruit-growing, 
that will pay as good a dividend on an investment of over 
$500 an acre." 
In an apple orchard, fillers may be varieties of apple that come into 
bearing very young (third or fourth year) : Yello* Transparent, Duchess, 
Wealthy, Wagener; also Jonathan, Grimes Golden, and Black Ben. Where 
these apples are used as fillers, they are in the center of the squares, so 
there are just as many fillers as there are permanent trees. Sour cherry 
trees -make profitable fillers. They are upright growing, young bearing 
and adaptable to a wide range of soil and climate. Peaches are very gener- 
ally used as fillers. They are set at equal distance between the permanent 
apple trees. If the apples are set 36 feet apart, the peach trees are set 
18 feet apart each way, which gives you three times as many peach trees 
to the acre as there are permanent apple trees. Mr. Hale has used this 
