Having stuffed our burlap sacks with enough greenery and crimson to garland a dozen windows, we set about choosing a tree. "It should be," muses my friend, "twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can't steal the star." The one we pick is twice as tall as me. A brave handsome brute that survives 30 hatchet strokes before it keels over with a creaking rending cry.
- Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory
The joy of cutting one's own Christmas tree that so many vicariously relive each year through this author's short story was played out across Maryland in recent weeks.
Bundled up in warm coats and snug-fitting ski caps, residents took to the field with hatchet or saw in hand in search of the just-right tree.
Maryland farmers make it a lot easier for tree hunters these days. There are more than 200 farms scattered across Maryland that open their lanes to people wishing to cut their own trees.
"Christmas trees are still a tiny part of the state's agriculture industry," said Lewis R. Riley, agriculture secretary. "Many started out as hobby farms. But trees have become the livelihood of many small farms in the state."
Tree farms have become entertainment for shoppers, Riley said. Many families make a day of it, bringing a picnic lunch or just a thermos of hot chocolate or coffee to chase the chill as they search for the right pine, Douglas fir or spruce to fill a spot in their living rooms.
The department's best picture of the size of the industry comes from its agriculture census of 2002.
"That's the only information we have," said Norman Bennett, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's statistics service for Maryland.
In 1997, when the previous census of agriculture was completed, he said, Christmas trees were not considered part of agriculture.
According to Bennett, there were 3,205 acres of trees on 263 farms in the state in 2002. Tree sales that year totaled $2.3 million.
Carroll County's 30 tree farms had sales of $385,000 that year. Garrett County had 15 farms and sales of $358,000.
Bennett said Montgomery County had 18 farms, but for unexplained reasons it did not report the dollar value of sales. Baltimore County's 21 farms had sales of $155,000. Frederick County's 19 farms produced $133,000, and Harford County reported only 10 farms but sales of $220,000.
"My guess is that Harford had some high-valued trees," Bennett said.
