Where the Christmas Tree Industry Started
I have read in several 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 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
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 solution. Farmers would let their cows out of the barn into the 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 also 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 and 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 pasture until cold weather forced them back to the barn.
Pasture Management
A typical Vermont farmer kept his 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 cows who were pregnant, waiting to get pregnant, were too young to get pregnant or were young steers intended for slaughter in the Fall were put in pastures further away from the barn, sometimes several miles by road from the barn. These were called “Back Pastures”. The back pastures often had the bigger population and selection of spruce trees. 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. This could be a challenge to anyone touring the pasture to see how many trees were available to cut.
Christmas Tree History
A foreman or owner of a company cutting Christmas trees 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 cut 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 dropped the trees where they 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” Meanwhile the “tier” selected a number of trees, straddled them and tied them into a tight bundle with 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 to protect them from the sun and wind. Even a small crew of 3 or 4 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 some time 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.
Christmas Trees Were A Solution
Why was this a good deal for the 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 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. 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 still at risk. The Fir trees tended to hold their needles better than Spruce and were less prickly. Customers like 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 pasture.
Because like most Vermont farms there are ups and downs and the perfect tree is probably not next to the netters, this saves you the work of cutting and dragging of the tree up or down hill and some distance. Also dragging a tree is not good for needle retention. Our staff minimize the dragging by placing it on one of our vehicles and moving it to the netters. If you decide not to have the tree netted, that is OK too.