The Rural Voice, 2006-12, Page 33was often someone in each
community who grew trees but now
growers are few and far between.
When the big chain stores got into
selling trees at $19 or $20 they
dragged the prices down about $10 a
tree and made it impossible for
many growers to make the business
pay, Mathers said.
Then there were the people who
liked the perfectly shaped artificial
tree that could be put up December 1
and left until New Years without
dropping a needle.
Natural tree prices have started
to creep up again with people
paying $40-60 on city lots
but still, it's a better business as a
hobby — as it is for Mathers — than
as a living. "Would I do it for a
living?" he says. "No, you'd starve to
death. You'd be boiling bark to eat."
Still, "I'm really glad we did it.
We (he and his wife Ila) enjoy
having people come out (to the
farm)."
And they meet all kinds: people
who arrive in street shoes, no coat
and no gloves to walk through the
fields to get a tree; people who lose
keys and cellphones that sometimes
aren't found until spring, and lots of
kids.
The teacher in Mathers comes out
with the kids. He likes to show them
the different kinds of trees and how
to identify them by the needles. He
enjoys teaching them that trees are
crops like soybeans or corn. He
teaches them that trees shed needles
in September and the new growth
generally comes in October through
December. In fact if you cut a tree
and put it in water it will likely
continue to grow for several days. He
teaches people the importance of
either putting the tree directly into
. water after it is cut or cutting off the
butt before taking it indoors because
the tree will have created a scar on
the cut and won't take up water (a
tree swill take up about a gallon of
water quickly when it's brought
indoors, he says).
He probably has about four or five
years left before his trees are too big
for Christmas tree sales. After that
he'll still have about 65,000 trees left
to grow for eventual lumber harvest.
That won't be in his lifetime. "You're
planting for your children," he says.0
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