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A nice thing about all the conifers used as Christmas trees is that they will grow on land that is not much good for growing anything else. Worn-out pastures, thin-soiled barrens, and north slopes unblessed by warmth or water will yield quite well with just a little fertilizing. Three negatives define the requirements better than any set of positives: no swamp, no shade, no livestock. Tastes in trees for Christmas vary surprisingly in different sections of the country. Largely preferred in New England and New York are balsam fir and white or Norway spruce. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the spruces used to lead in popularity, but the aristocrat now is Douglas fir. In Michigan and Ohio, the long-leafed pines—Scotch, red, and Austrian, in that order, trailed by white—now outsell the firs and spruces. Thus one of the first things to do before you go into Christmas trees is to check your regional markets and learn which kinds to plant. Besides salability, there are differences too in growth rates, care, and price. Douglas fir takes ten to fourteen years to reach six feet but fetches about $2.50 per tree at that size, on the stump. Norway and white spruce bring only half as much but reach market size two to four years sooner. Scotch pine, where it is salable, is in the $1.25 bracket for trees that take only six to eight years to grow, but the pines are prey to sawfly and pine-shoot moth and require watchful spraying. The spruces' enemies are aphids, weevils, and mites, not quite so destructive. Of them all, the fir is hardiest as to climate and parasites. All types need some pruning or shearing to perfect their shapes. |
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