Where the Christmas Tree Industry Started:
I have often read in magazine and newspaper articles and heard statements made on the media over the years that the Christmas tree industry began by people cutting trees in the forest and taking the tops as Christmas trees. That certainly happened but in very small numbers. Just think how many large conifers you would have to cut to get a truck load of Christmas trees, much less the many railcars that were used. No! The beginning of the Christmas tree business in at least the Northeastern states of the USA began in the dairy farm pasture, particularly the "back pasture".
Dairy Farm History:
Vermont was primarily a sheep and wool producing state in the early to the mid 1800's. Milk and cream were perishable products and would not survive the trip to cities outside Vermont. When the railroads and refrigeration became established, farms expanded their dairy barns and began shipping milk to local creameries who processed it and sent it to the cities. When the automobile became common, dairy farms expanded further. Most farms had the dairy barn near the house. Most Vermont farmers kept the cows currently giving milking in pastures near the barn. They went out to pasture after being milked in the morning, returned to the barn in late afternoon for another milking and then went back out to pasture for the night. The young heifers and other dry cows often along with a steer or two were placed on pastures further away from the barn; sometimes several miles away; typically called "Back Pastures".
Pasture Management:
Farmers would let their cows out of the barn into the back pastures in late April to mid May. The new growth was coming out on the hardwood trees and low woody plants and after a long winter the cows craved something fresh and green. Their feeding was often frenzied and not gentle. This kept the hardwoods from infiltrating and filling in the pastures. However this just made it easier for the conifers to proliferate and threaten to overwhelm the pastures. However the cows were helpful again because they sought out the softer foliaged trees such as Balsam Fir and White Pine and during warm or hot weather used these softer trees to rub against to seek relief from flies and itches. They typically destroyed the trees they used as scratching devices. This left the pastures with Red Spruce and in higher elevations White Spruce which flourished without much competition. Removing these trees by hand labor (there were no chain saws, brush cutters or weed whackers) was time consuming and had no reward. The spruce was only useful as pulp or saw logs and that required them to grow for at least 20 years by which time the pasture would be completely wooded and no longer provide grazing to cows. The cows generally stayed in the back pasture until cold weather forced them back to the barn. The farmer visited these back pastures occasionally to be sure that the fences had not been breached and that the cows were doing well. Quite often in the days before artificial insemination there would be a bull in the back pasture to get the cows pregnant. That could be a challenge to anyone visiting the pasture.
Christmas Tree Entrepreneurs:
Dairy farmers in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century were faced with a problem and the Christmas tree industry became it's solution. Christmas tree companies in Vermont were small seasonal businesses. It did not take a lot of capital to start or operate the business, just salesmanship and forestry skills. The Christmas tree harvest season ran from the 1st of October to early December. You needed a car, some hand tools such as axes and saws and enough money to pay your workers and their food and lodging. Four to six skilled men could make up a crew that moved from area to area cutting trees. Often the owner(s) were part of the crew. The crews staid in boarding houses and worked every day that the weather permitted. Down payments on the trees from retailers in large cities financed much of the work. A foreman or owner of a Christmas tree company would visit the farmers near a town with a railroad siding in the Summer and contract for the trees. Typically the trees needed to be cut every four to five years. In early October the cutting crew would start cutting the trees and tie them into bundles with varying numbers of trees per bundle. For example table top trees were 12 to a bundle and large trees were 1 to a bundle. The man cutting the trees (the cutter or chopper) generally used a light and sharp axe of about 2.5 pounds. He bent the tree over and cut it with one or two cuts. He pruned the bottom of the tree and dropped it where it fell and moved on to the next. These were then "snaked" to the closest pile, often 3 or 4 at a time depending upon their size by the "snaker" Snaking trees all day took a lot of stamina. Meanwhile the "tier" selected a number of trees, straddled them and tied them into a tight bundle with baling twine. A good tier could tie around 200 bundles a day which might consist of 600 to 800 trees. A rail car typically held from 500 to 700 bundles depending upon the size of the trees in the customer’s order. Some pastures produced more trees than others but generally they were not worth doing if they didn’t have at least a days worth of work. At the end of each day, the bundles were covered with spruce boughs from larger Spruce trees to protect them from the sun and wind. Even a crew of 4 to 6 men could produce enough bundles to fill at least ten rail cars or more in a season. They might have to cut in several towns with railroad sidings often many miles apart. The rail cars were shipped to large cities like New York, Detroit, New Orleans, etc. to arrive in late November and early December. My father "Jack" Stowell was one of these entrepreneurs. He worked in the business for over 40 years before our trees started to come of age on our farm. I had the privilege of being the "snaker" in 1964 before entering the army.
Christmas Trees Were A Solution:
Why was this a good deal for the dairy farmer? He got paid for each bundle of trees and additionally if he wanted to, he got the job of moving the trees with his team of horses or tractor from their many piles in the pasture to the edge of the road by mid November and got paid so much per bundle for that as well. In effect he got paid by check or cash for his pastures being maintained for him.
The Demise of the Back Pasture:
In the 1960s a number of innovations in dairy farming made back pastures less used. There were fewer farms as well. Wild Christmas trees were harder to find and less popular with customers.
Christmas trees were now starting to be planted and grown in old pastures and fields without being grazed by cattle. This allowed trees with soft foliage such as Balsam Fir to be grown safely although areas with large deer populations were risky. The Fir trees tended to hold their needles better than Spruce and were less prickly. Customers liked that. Back pastures are mostly a thing of the past and the Christmas tree industry has changed but that is how it started in the back pastures.