Our class went on a field trip to a tree farm. There were at least 20 acres of trees and 2 miles of trees. Mr. Peaslee, the owner of the tree farm, sells 800-1,000 trees a year. He has 30,000 trees. He has lots of equipment to take care of the trees . It takes 7 years for a Christmas tree to be full grown. Some take 12-14 years! The average size is 7 feet. Mr. Peasley grows many kinds of evergreen trees like golden spruce, blue spruce, Conn color fir, Douglas fir, balsam, white pine and Frasier fir. For every tree he cuts down he plants a new one!
To plant a tree, you take a seedling and a special tool with a circle at the end. You push down on it with your foot, and it makes a round hole in the ground. You put in the seedling, and in 10 years, if you take good care of it, you will have a 7 foot tree.
Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes bugs get on the trees and start eating them. Christmas tree farm owners use a Kubota tractor that sprays insecticide 60 feet. The spray kills the bugs, but if it rains, the spray will wash off, and the bugs will invade the tree. The bug makes a web so that the needles can't grow and so they curl. There is a sprayer called a Boom sprayer. If you don't get the spray on a tree, a bug may live there.
Trees on a tree farm get special care. Wild trees don't get any fertilizer. Fertilizer helps the trees turn dark green and makes the branches grow close together. The trees get trimmed regularly. Mr. Peaslee and his helper, Rob Pontau, use a special knife called a shearing knife. It is sharpened every morning. It is so sharp, that you could use it for shaving! They walk around the tree and cut it in the shape of the letter A.
Mr. Peaslee plants a lot of trees. He starts with seeds. There are male and female pine cones. The female cones are near the top. The male pine cone has the pollen in it. The pollen drifts up to the female cones, and that is how the seeds are made. Some trees have male and female cones on the same tree!
Real trees are much better than artificial trees. Artificial trees catch on fire easily and when they do they can give off a deadly gas. They are also made out of plastic covered wire, which does not recycle. Trees can be recycled. Real trees can be recycled back into the forest. They also smell very good!!
You can reserve a tree at a tree farm. Just choose your tree and Mr. Peaslee will put an orange tag on it. Then you can come back at any time. Find your tag and cut down your tree and take it home.
Many of us felt it would be fun to own a tree farm, but a lot of work! There are so many beautiful trees to look at. We learned a lot on our visit to Mr. Peaslee's tree farm and we had a wonderful time!
This page has been accessed 7157 times since 12/19/96.