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Show The Story Of The Christmas Tree . . . Wm. D. Hurst Supervisor, Ashley National Forest The Christmas tree as we know it today has developed over a long period of time, and it has been influenced by people of many lands. Most historians trace the lighted Christmas tree back to the year 1546 when Martin Luther, in an attempt to stimulate the reflections re-flections of the starlit heaven that looked down over Bethlehem oil that first Christmas Eve, decorated decorat-ed a small evergreen with lighted candles. Until 1700 the Christmas tree custom was apparently confined to the Rhine River district. Soon : after its use spread throughout . Germany, and during the Amer-' Amer-' ican Revolution the tradition of the Christmas tree crossed the Atlantic At-lantic with Hessian (German) soldiers. sol-diers. In 1804 a description of Christmas festivities at Fort Dearborn, Dear-born, Illinois mentions the use of a Christmas tree. During the eighteen hundreds the Christmas tree was used in many American homes, but it was not until the nineteen hundreds that the Christmas tree was con-'sidered con-'sidered an essential part of every home at Christmas time. In 1951 a total of 30 million Christmas trees were sold in the United States to take care of the nation's 39 million families. The 1951 Christmas tree crop was valued val-ued at 50 million dollars. With Christmas trees in great demand at Christmas time, it is essential that proper forest management man-agement practices be followed in selecting and harvesting these trees if the nation's timber supply sup-ply is to be maintained and an annual Christmas tree crop insured. insur-ed. Many evergreen tree stands lend themselves well to thinnings for Christmas trees other do not. Alpine fir or Balsam fir can and should be thinned annually and the thinnings used for Christmas trees. Douglas fir is another tree that needs to be frequently thinned thin-ned in order to produce the best timber. The thinnings here also make fine Christmas trees. Blue spruce that are found along our road and waterways never grow very thick, and through uncontrolled uncon-trolled cutting they can, and in many cases have, been eliminated from our forest complex. Other trees too, such as Ponderosa Pine and Englemann Spruce, must be harvested under controlled cutting if damage to these stands is to be prevented. On the Ashley National Forest, Christmas trees are cut only under permit and with the supervision of the District Ranger. The taking of trees from stream bottoms and I from areas adjacent to scenic roads is prohibited. Already too much of the aesthetic value of our scenic roads has been destroyed des-troyed through the cutting of the small and very beautiful spruce from these areas. Christmas trees add a fine spirit spir-it to our homes during Christmas. Let's make sure that the tree we use was cut to benefit our forest and not to destroy it. We can do this by being sure the tree we obtain is properly tagged. |