As already suggested, there is a great revolution going on in the minds of tree-planters as to the proper age for planting. Instead of the inquiry for huge and cumbrous, overgrown trees, that had stood four or five years or more in the nursery, we now find a growing demand for small, stocky trees, of two or three years, or even less. Of many thriftily growing kinds, good yearlings are much better for the orchard than large trees, especially such as have been crowded in the nursery and are devoid of side branches, and whose tall naked stems are exposed to the burning heats and blasting cold of their new homes in the open field, and to the depredations of hosts of insects. Those purchasers, who seek after the tall trees, with bare stems, running up like fishing poles, they who desire to buy their trees by the running yard and to get as great a length as possible for their money, can be accommodated by the nurseryman, who will produce the article to order; but such planters will soon find that their orchards are much less satisfactory than those set with short and stocky trees, and which have been encouraged to branch out so as to form low heads. As set forth in the chapter upon _The Nursery_, such trees can be produced, and they are greatly to be preferred on many accounts, but their production by the nurserymen must depend upon the intelligence of the orchardists producing a demand for trees of such a character, and a willingness on their part to pay the grower a liberal price for the increased labor and expense, (in space at least), requisite for their production. This no one should object to, for there is economy in planting good trees; the successful orchardist will purchase the best; he will not have the refuse or trash that may be offered him at a low figure, for he well knows that it is dear at any price. Where it is practicable and within reach, it is best for the planter to visit the nursery and make his own selection of the trees, especially if the demand be for a limited number; but he may generally depend upon the judgment and honesty of the nurseryman, if he has given his order distinctly as to the shape of the trees he desires to purchase. In a common nursery, he will often observe at the ends of the rows, and where there may have been a gap or break in the continuous line of any variety, so that the trees are less crowded, some trees that are better furnished with lateral branches, and are consequently more stocky than where the rows are crowded. Here he will be likely to find the specimens that suit his fancy, and he will mark them for removal.