Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-21
CHRISTMAS-TREE FARM
WHERE THE TOWN GETS ITS
HOLIDAY SUPPLY.
Balsam FRS From the Maine Forests
and New Hampshire-How Gathered
and Brought to Market.


From the New York Evening Post.
The most irresistibly Christmas spot in
town is that one down on West street
where $1,000 Christmas trees are stacked in
one heap. sending their subtle odors up and
down the docks to remind the passer-by of
fragrant forests, snow-laden and still in
the northland.
The Farm this Christmas tree market
is called in the trade. and it supplies the
whole surrounding region. Connecticut,
New Jersey and southern New York state
are supplied from here and trees have even
been ordered for Cuba from the Farm"
Here the commission men come for hum
dred punches at time or even carload;
and the grocers for from one to a dozen
punches, according to their needs.
The most available size for the family
trade, which forms the bulk of the business,
is sax or seven feet high. Some trees from
hfteen to thirty feet are brought in and
occasionally a forty-foot monarch for some
the latter come into New York in a season.
The Balsam Fir.
There is only one true Christmas tree-the
balsam fir. This is symmetrical. spicily
fragrant, and has straight stiff branches,
which Will support good load of presents.
The hemlock, beautiful for massing and
roping. has branches too dropping and fiex-
ible for Christmas tree. The spruce, suit
able an other ways, lacks the delicious odor
OF the fir. This is fortunate. for the tree
most priced for Christmas is utterly de-
splsed by the lumbermen. 1t has never
been worth numbering, and before the
Christmas tree industry began the fir lands
or Maine were actually exempt from tax
alton, as being perfectly worthless. Today
they are valued at from SO to S15 an acre,
mainly for their Christmas trees
The Christmas tree cutters begin their
work as early as the middle of October. 1t
requires experience to cut Christmas trees
prohtably An ordinary woodman will
waste more than he Is worth. He must
know how to estimate, from the size and
general appearance of the tree, the best
height at which to cut it. A green hand
it's saiable qualities While part of the men
are cutting, others follow them and drag
the trees out of the woods to the nearest
open space. AS there are no roads into the
woods this has to be done by hand. In the
open space they must be punched and tied
and if this Is not properly done the punches
Will come apart in shipping Then the butts
OF each bunch are sawed off, to give neat,
trim appearance. Then ,ney are hauled to
the main road and stacked. After the har-
vest is over they are all loaded again and
hauled to the nearest depot, usually ten
or twelve miles away. There they are load
ed-on the cars.H,A carload is about $500
trees. as3 tjfl
Beginning of the Industry.
The industry began at about the same
time in Maine and the Catskills some thirty
years ago. But the frs were cleaned out Of
the Catskills 1ten Years ago. and the old
Catskill shippers how go to New Hamp-
shire and Vermont for their trees, taking
their cutters with" them. They pay their
men 81 80 day and board. 1t takes from
four to sevenImeg working from October
Is to the last Of Noyember to get out three
carloads of trees ..af
There are only about twenty men in the
business of bringing Christmas trees into
New York. and they may be found at the
Farm every day from December 1 to
December $50 from morning until night
They are a combination of the shrewd bust
ness man apdaths man who gets. his living
by some craft that brings him directly in
contact with nature. -.
The business. is dependent upon the
weather. Last year, tor instance, more
than 200 cars of Christmas trees came into
New York. 1t was am open fall, and the
trees We're easy to get. Therefore, they
started at 45 cents bunch and dropped to
10 cents. This year there were early and
heavy SHOWS all through the Christmas tree
country. This makes the work very diff
cult. If the snow melts and then freezes On
the branches, it makes them so brittle that
they break in transit. Consequently, only
140 cars came in. The trees started at
IS cents a bunch, and the men at the
Farm confidently and joyously expect
that it will run to 81 before Christmas eve.
The men that. pace around the great
green. understanding mound down on West
street are not in the least sentimental, and
yet their picturesque craft is based and
founded sentiment, and the fragrant
Farm" sends forth odor of sentiment
with every spicy breath that blows aicng
the docks.