The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16
GREENS FOR %CHRISTMASTIDE.
NORTH AND SOUTH HELP TO DEC
CRATE NEW YORK HOMES.

keyport. n. j.. supplies the wreaths, France
and England the MistletOe-Many work.
ers Gather Christmas Greens-The Best
Christmas Trees-Tne Laurel supply.
For three months before Christmas peo-
pie are working from Maine TO Florida and
even across the Atlantic to supply New
York with its Christmas greens.
For many years all the made stuff among
the Christmas greens, all those wreaths Of
holly and stars Of hemlock with knots Of
red immortelles. came from Keyport, N.
j.. from the clammers. The men went
into the woods late in November and gath
cred their annual free harvest Of greens.
Then the women and children made II up
at home.
In former years they got their raw ma
terial from the woods at Sandy Hook.
But the Government no longer allows the
greens to be gathered on its reservation,
and the men have TO go further afeld,
sometimes down into Maryland and Della
ware. whence the spoils are freighted home
to the women and children. Within the
last two or three years, for the first time in
the history of the trade. made stuff came
in from Maryland and Delaware.
The bulk Of the holly comes from Mary
land and Virginia. About a hundred car
loads Of il comes in for the trade each year.
About one hundred different men are in
tereeted in shipping ii, and as they employ
on the average five pickers apiece the an
nual holly crop for New York employs 500
people for a month before Christmas, be-
sides the women and girls who make
up the wreaths.
Negroes are mainly employed as pickers,
and as TIE tree Ia not destroyed there has
never been any ~perceptible diminution in
the crop. II is usually gathered in woods
several miles from the railroads. II must
be packed tightly. or the berries will shake
OF, which makes it almost worthless. And
II it is frozen it must be thawed gradually
In a cool place, or il will turn black.
The plant called lycopodium by the
scientific, and termed variously ground
pine, princess pine, running pine, club
moss or bouquet green's by the layman, is
the oldest and commonest of the Christmas
greens, and has never known a rival for
ropes, festoons and streamers. IL is a
tiny tree, which grows six or seven inches
high. They pull it up by the roots, but IL
replants itself so freely that there is not
much danger of its determination.
1t is a free harvest, gathered mostly by
boys, who collect it in great sacks during
the day, and sort it into small punches
around the kitchen fire at night, pressing
their mothers and sisters into the service
They get 4 or S cents a pound for it, and
il takes a lot OF it to make a pound.
A CatskiIl tree man said there were prob
ably fifty boys Inc girls busy at the job
in the Catskills for a month before
Christmas, sending out four or five tons
in all. If this is right, there u be many
hundreds busy in Maine. New Hamp-
shire and Vermont, for the bulk OF the
bouquet green comes from those States.
The little that comes from Pennsylvania
and the Catskills is not liked so well, be-
cause it is not so fluffy as the crop from
the more northern States.
About 1000 cases Of mistle.oe are handled
by the New York trade, the larger par
Of il coming from France and England
whence it arrives on fast steamers about
the middle Of December. The European
is preferred on account OF the superior CLOS
of its leaves and size OF its berries.
It grows very plentifully in some part
of the south Of England, where it gives tn,
woods a peculiar look in winter, and i
gathered by peasants and villagers for tn
CnTBJInhS JTHuSs apparently nv Oho 40
thought to domesticate il. Perhaps il
cheaper TO keep it out, as the native variet
is a nuisance in the South. where it event
ually kills any tree that it fastens upo
unless cut out.
The branches and sprays Of pine that on
sees in the stores at Christmas time, wit
needles so much longer and finer than tn
pine commonly seen. and OF a brillian
metallic green, is called standing pine in th
trade and comes from Florida. The laure
arbor vite and hemlock COM mostly fror
New Jersey, much Of it being sent in by tn
Newport people.
The leaves of the laurel, thick, evergree
and glossy, are as beautiful for Christina
as its exquisite blossoms are for spring
But its use for Christmas greens or for an
commercial purpose should be forbidden b
law, say some people. 1t is not. a fre'
prolific grower like most Of the Christina
greens and is in danger OF determination.
Wild Southern smilax, q very dfferen
thing from the greenhouse smilax, wa
introduced a few years ago. 1t has the be-
lasting qualities OF any VII USED TOT oecc
Gaiax is another lately introduced greer
though its beautiful leaves are as ofteI
bronze as green. It grows only in tn
southern Ap~palachians.
Il is gathered by the mountain whites
whole Reighborhoods turning into tn
woods for the harvest and sometime
camping out during the season and sortin
the DAYS crop around the camp fire at nigh
II is now exported to Europe, especially
that most Christmas keeping Of countrie
, Germany.
To the popular mind a Christmas tree
any kind of evergreen set up in the house
Christmas time. But to the tree men
Christmas tree is just one kind OF a tree, II
, balsam fir.
4 IL is the ideal Christmas tree, partly D.
cause il has strong. still branches, capab
OF holding a generous array OF present
e more especially because Of its spicy delicio'
odor, brought out by the Christmas mr.
hut chiefly because IL is good for nothin
else. Its fragrant needles are, IL is tru'
= now used for balsam pillows. But IT
= worthless as lumber. .
I Christmas trees first began TO come IN
New York thirty-hve or forty years az
: and the Catskills we're the first huntlT
q grounds. Large sections were denuded
9 the balsams there. but the fir seems In
Q possible to extermjnate as long as the lar
8 IL left to pasture. Sections complete
cleared OF it in the Catskills ten years AZ
z are now thickly covered with young II
& again, some big enough to market.
Q The main sources OF supply now a
q Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont; al