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Show Packaged Trees Ready for Yule Minnesota Factory Ships Over World nY CHRISTMAS, Roy Halvorson, known around Duluth, Minn., as "the Christmas tree king," expects ex-pects to have shipped about a million mil-lion and a quarter trees all over the world. Each of the trees swamp spruces, 32 to 40 inches tall, treated with green, white or silver preservative preser-vative and having metal bases with sealed-in formulated sap comes In a special gift package, wrapped in tissue paper, tied with ribbons and containing a box of 24 ornaments. orna-ments. Halvorson caters to companies and individuals with large gift orders all the donor has to do Is fill in an order form, listing each person to receive a tree. The trees are packed in white corrugated cartons car-tons and mailed direct from the factory with gift cards. So far he has orders for 20,000 gift packs. Mr. Halvorson says Christmas trees this year are 15 per cent higher In price because of increased cost of labor and materials. materi-als. His factory operates from the first of September through Christmas, Christ-mas, rests until February, rumi until June and stays idle July and August. Trees come from Halvorson's 10,000-acre forest, or on state-owned forests. Each year, Halvorson crews cut over 10,000 acres of swampy wastelands. Minnesota's school fund, gets two cents for each tree. Conservation officials commend Halvorson for his part in clearing the swampy muskeg that covers much of the northern part of the state. Only swamp spruce, which grow to a maximum1 of about 20 feet higher, high-er, are used. Woodsmen cut off the top four feet ef the tree and load in bundles of 10 on sleds drawn b tractors. |