The Citizen, 2006-12-07, Page 300' Christmas tree
A stop at Mathers tree farm is part of the annual Christmas traditions for the Townsend family.
George, left, and Ruth Townsend of Seaforth show off their choice. With them is Arnold
Mathers. (Photo submitted)
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PAGE 30. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2006.
Christmas tradition brin s folks from afar
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
It's part of the tradition of
Christmas — the annual trip to the
bush to cut the family's tree, and yet
in a world of convenience, one that is
hardly available anymore.
That's what brings families up to
60 milei to Arnold Mather's farm
near Wingham every year to
experience choosing and cutting the
family tree.
Mathers' Christmas tree business
came almost by accident, but his
love of trees didn't. His interest in
trees is genetic, he says, recalling
how his father used to take logs from
the bush on the family farm a few
miles from the farm where he now
grows trees. He helped his father
plant trees back in 1954 when he
was a high school student in the 4-H
Forestry club and again in another
plot a year or two later.
So the farm and trees called him
back even when he made his career
as a teacher, elementary school
principal and superintendent of
education with the former Huron
County Board of Education. He
bought the farm in 1978. When he
discovered there was a low area
unsuitable for cropping, he brought
in the Ministry of Natural Resources
to plant 25,000 trees.
Later he bought a second farm
across the road and had another
40,000 trees planted. The agreement
with these plantations is that they
must be left to mature, but M_ NR
technicians suggested that two fire
breaks were needed to break up the
large plantation. He'd be- allowed to
harvest the trees in these breaks at a
young age and the idea of Christmas
trees was born.
He decided to plant a five-acre
cornfield for Christmas tree harvest.
In 1980 he bought 5,000 scotch pine,
white spruce, white pine and balsam
fir trees for this -plantation and had
them planted.
In 1983 he planted an awkward
three-acre triangular field near the
house for Christmas trees. He'd read
about trees being grown in New York
State in test tubes and shipped
frozen. He ordered some and paid
students to plant them. The idea was
that all you had to do was poke a
hole in the earth with a broom
handle and put the plug in but the
reality, he said, was that the trees
took much longer to grow than bare
root stock because it took so long for
the roots to break out of their
planting hole. It was the first of
many lessons.
The fastest growing was the white
pine and about 14 years after
planting, he began inviting friends
and family in to cut Christmas trees
of this variety — taking 20-25 trees
a year. As -more trees grew to a
marketable size, he began
advertising. Last year he had about
300 families come to pick and cut
their own trees.
The scarcity of places where you
can go to cut a tree brings people
from as far away as Kitchener to the
Mathers homestead.
There are also quite a few
customers from Stratford, Goderich,
Hanover and Walkerton as well as
the closer areas, he says.
The farm is open Fridays,
because after all, the tree "just grew
there".
Those are people who don't know
the work involved in growing a
Christmas tree. First of all there's a
cost of about $1 per seedling in
buying and planting the tree. Then
there's 20 years or so of care.
The Christmas, tree plantations are
spaced to allow room between for
cutting the grass, which is done
several times a year on a small
tractor. Then there's the work of
shaping the trees to make them
conform to public tastes,, something
that won't happen without human
intervention.
The shaping process began with
trimming the leader on each tree to
make it fill out. Later it was time to
trim the side growth on the trees. For
several years this was done by
powering electric hedge trimmers
from a portable generator but this
was a headache as he spent lots of
time fixing electrical cords that got
severed by accident.
Today he uses a lightweight (until
you've carried it for a couple of
hours, he says) gas-powered
trimmer. This has reduced the
workload from needing three
students plus himself with the
electric trimmers to one student and
himself now. Of course with each
year's sales, there are a few fewer
trees to trim than before.
. They trim in July and usually in
the morning when there's dew on the
trees. It's less stressful on the trees,
he says. It would seem like hot work
but actually, he says, it's five to
seven degrees Fahrenheit cooler in
the plantation than in an open field.
Part of this is from the shade of the
trees on the ground, even though
they aren't high enough to shade the
workers, part from the oxygen being
expelled into the air by the trees.
"You can work on an 85°F day and
not be uncomfortable."
• They trim trees for the different
expectations of customers. Some
want a narrow tree to put in, the
middle of the room. Others like a
big, bushy tree to put in the corner.
He's used a lot of students to help
over the years and though there were
a few boys that were good at
trimming, girls have generally been
better at judging how to shape a tree
for Christmas tree use.
A very few trees have been lost
over the years to diseases like pine
rust. A few succumb to accidents
with the mower. The biggest danger,
however, is ant hills. "An ant hill will
Continued on page 31 Saturdays and Sundays starting at
the beginning of December each
year. The biggest weekend is a week
before Christmas when about 60
people a day arrive.
Some people like to spend a
couple of hours walking the bush.
"It's a really family fun time."
For others, it's just another holiday
chore that has to be ticked off and
they pick the first tree they see.
To add fun for kids, they often give
a ride on the snowmobile which
hauls the trees out of the plantation
on a venerable skiboose.
"Most people come and are
delighted to pay the $25 or whatever
price we're charging," Mathers said.
Some tell him that a tree on a lot in
the city might cost them $60. Of
course people being people there is
the odd person who has complained
that they shouldn't be charging at all