A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 559 



of such sites by rhododendron. On the other hand, removal of 

 these species from the forest on a large commercial scale has in 

 some cases resulted in local extermination of rhododendron and 

 other ornamental shrubs of the heath family. Extermination (rather 

 than thinning) of these species is objectionable, especially along and 

 near highways, not only on account of their pecuniary value, but 

 because they greatly enhance the beauty of the woods and when 

 in bloom attract large numbers of visitors. In fact, for some 

 mountain communities these shrubs are an important advertising 

 asset, helping to bring in a seasonal tourist trade which is a vital 

 source of local income. 



The Christmas-tree industry is a very large one, the annual con- 

 sumption in the United States being estimated at about 10,000,000 

 trees, which, at the very conservative retail figure of 50 cents per 

 tree, would amount to at least $5,000,000 a year. No other country 

 in the world has such a wealth of native conifers as the United States, 

 and there are possibilities as yet undeveloped in the Christmas-tree 

 trade both as a private business and from a public forest manage- 

 ment standpoint. The Christmas-tree business, when properly 

 conducted, involves a selective yearly thinning of the stand with a 

 continuous annual supply as the objective. As conducted on the 

 Pike National Forest in Colorado it largely represents a much- 

 needed thinning of young Douglas fir stands, the reproduction of 

 which ordinarily tends to be thicker than is desirable. The city of 

 Denver, Colo., annually consumes about 40,000 Christmas trees 

 plus 500 tons of boughs (for wreaths and other decorations) cut 

 under permit from the Pike Forest, an operation involving a thinning 

 of about 200 to 400 acres of forest annually. Prior to Forest Service 

 management local Christmas-tree demand in Denver was largely 

 met by promiscuous and destructive cutting on private lands, 

 unsightly lopping of trees along mountain highways, and similar 

 acts of vandalism. Such undesirable practices still largely obtain 

 in many localities where forest management has not been brought 

 to bear on the problem. It the East, one Pennsylvania farmer, on 

 1,500 acres of woodland, has annually averaged $5,400 net over a 

 7-year period from the sale of Christmas trees, handling his crop on a 

 selective-cutting basis. 



The pre-Christmas season makes a wide-spread demand for labor to 

 cut and handle not only Christmas trees but a great diversity of 

 evergreens for wreaths and other decorative purposes, nearly all of 

 which are obtained from the forest: Conifers, lycopods, and club- 

 mosses from nearly all parts of the country, mistletoe from the South 

 and the South Central States, holly and kalmia in the Eastern States, 

 toyon, Oregon-grape, and salal from the Pacific States, and so on. 

 As mistletoe is a destructive parasite of timber species its harvesting 

 for decorative purposes is a positive benefit to the forest and is 

 worthy of encouragement. Unfortunately, however, only one of the 

 two native mistletoe genera possesses ornamental values. 



Coville (U.S.Dept.Agr. Farmers' Bui. 1693) reports that the coastal 

 portions of Delaware and Maryland are the present center of produc- 

 tion for American holly greens and that this center is definitely mov- 

 ing southward. He states that in Maryland, during 1930 and 1931, 

 local retailers paid approximately 15, 25, and 55 cents apiece for 

 10-, 15-, and 24-inch wreaths, respectively, and that bulk holly, in 



