October 17th, 2008
Christmas Tree Farming: The History of an Industry
In 2007, over 31 million live Christmas trees were sold in the United States. Find out how the Christmas tree farming industry grew from its humble beginnings in the mid-1800’s to the $1.3 billion dollar industry that it is today.
The history of the Christmas tree farming industry in the United States dates back to the year 1851, when an entrepreneurial farmer named Mark Carr hauled two sleds full of evergreen trees into New York City to sell them. As the story goes, he sold all the trees, and thus a new industry was born. In 1901, Christmas tree farming began on a larger scale when a farmer in New Jersey planted 25,000 Norway spruce trees. He harvested and sold them just 7 years later for $1.00 per tree.