SELECTION AND PLANTING. 231 



wards, without feeling that be is sacrificing to his fancy 

 and judgment the growth of two or three years, by freely 

 using the knife and saw, in the removal of the surplus 

 and overgrown top, leaving him only a bare and mu- 

 tilated stock to set out at the beginning of his orchard. 



Another advantage of selecting small trees, especially 

 to those at a distance from the nursery, is, that they are 

 so much more easily transported, and freight bills are a 

 serious item in the expense account of a large orchard 

 plantation these may be reduced to a minimum by the 

 selection of small instead of large trees. As to forming 

 the heads of our trees, if we cannot get the nurserymen 

 to do this for us, since we are unwilling to remunerate 

 them for the extra labor, and greater space required to 

 form such stocky specimens as we prefer, the difficulty is 

 obviated by planting out young trees upon which we may 

 form the heads where we please. 



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 



