The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-12-21
CHRISTMAS TREES.
The Immenss Trade ia New Yosk-whsEs
They Come From.

khH htktthbhfb AFthib So WV NftANh1 I
They Come From.
Garden and Forcit.
Every morning for week past the |
steamboat Minnie Cornell, from Key
port, New Jersey, has come to her pier
loaded with "rope" and clancy green"
Rope" is tue trade name for the cables
made OF club.moss and occasionally Of
Hemiock spray, and used for looping
into iestOoDs ortwining about columns in
Christmas decorations. "Fancy green"
inclHdesthe wreathes stars and other de-
signs, manufactured chiefly from the
leaves Of holly, laurel and rhOdoden.
dron, together with moses, green or
gray, from oak trunks and cedar boughs,
scarlet berries OF the black alder, the
Blush gray fruit OF the juniper, the
scarlet and orange fruits OF the bitter.
sweet, not 10 speak OF grasses dried and
dyed in fearful and wonderful colors.
The little steamer has more than once
carried 10000 yards OF the festooning
material, and more than l,h0O dozen
stars and wreathes at single trip,
and the entire amount OF rope"
brought to this market during the seas
on would reach from New York to Bus-
ton.
The very first Christmas green sold in
this city came from Keyport Some
forty.tive years ago the wife OF Mon
mouth county farmer gathered enough
ground pine TO fill sheet with the four
corners tied together, and shipped it on
sloOp with her poultry. 1t proved q
lucky venture, and ever since the people
vi Monmouth county have held almost
u monopoly Of the industry, although
both the species OF club moss most
largely used, Lyc0pOdivm deRdraideum
and L. cOmplGnGi,im, were practically
exterminaled from that region years
ago. They are still abundant, however,
IN Connecticut, some parts OF northern
New York, and Massachusetts, and are
shipped to New jersey in such guam
titles that large dealers buy them by the
ton, and the manufacture OF these testal
wreathes and cables gives employment to
the wives and daughters Of many farm
ers after the fall work on the farm is
over.
The trade in Christmas.trees began in
1851, when Mark Carr yoked up his
oxen and hauled from the Catskills to
the steamboat landing on the Hudson
two Sod ioads OF young baisams, and
paid silver dollar for the privilege Of
selling them on the corner OF Vesey aud
Greenwich streets. At least 100000
trees have been piled up along the docks
OF the North River during the last week,
and since the days OF Mark Carr many II
dealer has been been glad to pay hun.
bred dollars for corner privilege for
the holiday trade in CEistmas trees
About half the trees this year come from
Maine, the remainder from the BeTk-
shire Hills, the Black River country in
the ACKNOWLEDGES, and the Calskills
Good trees in the Uatskills are becoming
scarce, however, and the wOodsmen Of
those mountains are looking elsewhere
for their material. Short jointed, stoCky
trees with perfect whorls OF branches at
the base Of each annual growth, ARE the
most sought for, and the Maine trees, as
rule, command rather higher prices
than any others. The trees come up
thickly where hardwood timber has
been cleared away, aud il they are cut
above the second or third joint. one OF
the limbs soon turns upward aud be-
comes a leader to furnish another
ChristmaS-tree. In this way the same
land is cut over several times.
Fortunately the balsam fir isabout as
nearly worthless for any other purpose
us any OF our native trees, and therefore
the waste OF cutting SO much young tim
Der is not serious. A few black spruces
come among the frs, and hemloek
boughs, which, oddly enough, are made
to do duty us palm branches in some
church services, are in growing demand
every year. Trees from Maine are ship.
ped as far south as Baltimore; and oflatc
years large quantities OF holly branches,
mostly from Maryland, since the limited
supply is New Jersey is nearly exhausted,
are sent us far north as Boston. Within
two or three years the mistfetoe has been
sold here III Il few shops and even on the
streets, but in spite OF its association
with Christmas festivities in Old World
traditions, it has filed but small place
here in the regular market OF Christmas
green. And yet this parasite is common
on the gum trees OF Southern New Jer.
sey, and is never so beautiful as at this
season with its transparent berries
clustered among its evergreen leaves.