A3B-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, Decamber 20,1986
Customers Seek Yule Trees At Elliott’s Nursery
(Continued from Page Al)
you can figure on burning it,”
Elliott says.
Considering the amount of work
it took to bring that tree from a
seed to the Christmas tree lot,
Elliott doesn’t want to bum many
trees.
Elliott and his sons, Doug and
Bill m, work fulltime at the
business. It’s a year-round job.
“You never get caught up,
especially with this many acres,”
Elliott says.
The Elliotts plant Scotch, white
and red pine, three types of
Douglas fir, concolor fir, and blue,
white and Norway spruce seeds by
hand in raised beds. They spray
the seedbeds with Round-up and
Princep before planting.
The tiny plants are top-dressed
in April and June with 10-10-10 and
Tomato Grower Meeting Set
The Northeast Regional Tomato
Growers meeting will be held on
Thursday, January 8 from 10 a.m.
to 3:30 p.m. at Thompson’s Dairy
Bar on the Newton Ransom
Boulevard at Newton in
Lackawanna County.
Attorney John Becker, Penn
State Extension specialist in farm
law, will explain the farmer
responsibilities under the “right to
know” legislation. Other topics on
the program include the value of
foliar fertilizers; management
practices for disease control;
federal crop insurance; the “sod
buster” program and new
Production
Rises ,
Profits Shrink
BY
C. WILLIAM HEALD
Average milk
production for DHIA
tested cows increased
704 pounds to 16,475
pounds per cow this
year. Average reported
milk income per cwt
dropped $1.03 to $11.82.
That verifies what
farmers have been
saying “gross income
per cow is down.”
DHIA data shows a
drop in income of $79.23
per cow despite the
large increase in
production. Lower feed
costs helped some,
changing from $827 last
year to $779 this year for
a $4B drop in yearly cost
but this was not enough
to offset lower milk
prices.
Income over feed cost
fell from $1,199 to $1,168
per cow. Dairy farmers
responded by adding to
herd size going from an
average of 59.0 to 60.6
cows per herd.
More cows and more
milk mean more
pressure on dairy
farmers to balance
supply and demand for
milk. Herd
management problems
also increase with size.
With lots of good home
grown heifers, it is easy
to increase herd size but
would dairy farmers be
better off to cull herds
more closely, increase
their herd average, and
obtain a higher income
over-feed cost?
Re-calculating a herd
average after hypo
thetically removing a
percentage of the herd
is not difficult. Those
interested can request a
one page worksheet
from Bill Heald, 8
Borland Lab, University
irrigated when necessary. Elliott
rigs snow fencing over the beds to
protect the tender plants from the
direct sunlight.
In autumn, he mulches then with
sawdust. While the sawdust does
not prevent freezing and thawing,
it keeps the 1%-inch high plants
from heaving out of the ground.
When the seedlings are two years
old and stand between 4 and 24
inches tall, they are transplanted
by hand to other raised beds.
Many of the seedlings are sold at
the two or three year old stage to
other Christmas tree growers. In
the spring, Doug and Bill 111 are
kept busy grading and bundling the
seedlings for shipment.
The rest of the seedlings are
planted in the Elliotts’ fields. They
own 300 acres in scenic Path Valley
and another 133 in nearby Bums
regulations for private pesticide
applicator certification.
The speakers are Dr. Cyril Smith
and Dr. Alan Mac Nab from Penn
State University, also William
Foose, Federal Crop Insurance
Corporation; James Garrahan,
Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture and Ed Sokoloski, Soil
Conservation Service.
Reservations for the meeting
must be made by sending $6.50
with your name and address to the
Lackawanna County Cooperative
Extension, 200 Adams Avenue,
Scranton, Pa. 18503 by Tuesday,
December 30.
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10% OFF SALE
Till January Ist, 1987
• Sepko Bio-Degradeable Powder
• BTC
• Sepko Liquid Household And Industrial
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• 1313 Low Foam Pipeline Cleaner
And Sanitizer
• Protek Teat Dip With Lanolin
• Prep Udder Wash And Sanitizer
• Full Line Of Monark-Sepko Supplies
All Orders For This Sale Will Be Honored Till
January Ist (Price Increase After January Ist)
ORDER NOW AND SAVE ABOUT 15%
Available At...
JOHN E. ESH ELMER P. ESH
68 Clearview Rd. 242 Esbenshade Rd.
Ronks, Pa. 17572 Ronks, Pa. 17572
V* Mile Southwest Of '/« Mile South Of Rt. 741 On
Intercourse Esbenshade Rd.
OR-CALL ORDERS TO RON GILMER 717-768 3320
Valley, much of it woodland. About
150 acres are in Christmas trees.
How long it takes a tree to reach
Christmas tree size varies from 8
to 15 years, depending on the type
of tree. Scotch pine is faster,
Douglas fir and blue spruce are
slower. “I started doing this in
1956,” Elliott states, “and I haven’t
gotten two crops off any one field
yet.”
“This isn’t a business for a young
couple to get into if they have no
other income,” he adds. “Your
first check is a long way off.”
When he and Patricia started the
Christmas tree business, he
worked at Letterkenny Army
Depot and she worked at a store in
Chambersburg. Neither was
raised on a farm.
“I worked at Letterkenny, but I
thought that I’d hike to be outdoors
and that trees would be a good
business, so I started looking for a
farm. I got this one, and I’ve been
at it ever since.” At that time, his
parents ran the motel and Patricia
was free to help him with the trees
while the boys were in school. Now,
Patricia operates the motel and
restaurant with help from
daughter Candy, 14.
The Elliotts got into the
wholesale seedling business
several years ago when they had
trouble getting a steady supply of
good-quality seedlings.
“Every time I found a good
supplier, he would either die, sell
out, or quit.” A supplier who
wanted to quit encouraged Elliott
to grow them for himself, and
seedlings are now a large part of
the business.
- been trimmed
Elliott says he plans to use its seeds to raise additional trees.
The Elliotts hire other workers
seasonally to help with cutting,
dragging and loading the trees for
wholesale shipment. The all
important trimming, ho«ever, is
done only by Bill and his sons.
“The shape of a tree is all in the
trimming,” Elliott explains. “The
books say to cut the top leader
back to 8 to 10 inches. But when I
walk up to a tree, I look at it and
see how it’s shaped. Then I trim it
accordingly.” The scotch and
white pines are trimmed June 1
through July 15; the fir and spruce
from Aug. 1 through April 1.
Christmas tree farming, like any
other type of fanning, has its
drawbacks. While the seedlings
are irrigated, the larger trees are
not, and dry years take their toll.
Elliott planted 2,500 concolor firs
one year and wound up with 500
due to drought.
He considers mice and spruce
gall to be his worst problems. In
1985, he lost 3,500 trees to mice.
“Mice will ring a tree or a larger
seedling during the winter, and it’ll
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Yes, our customers don't need to spray chemicals on alfalfa anymore, then
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Our company also has a natural herbicide, economically priced, which at the
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Get with the company that is looking for the answers to the farmer's
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be dead by spring.” The mice do
not bother the tiny, sawdust
mulched seedlings because these
give them no place to hide. The
Elliotts spray regularly to
eradicate insects and weeds.
When they first started the
Christmas tree business, they also
had a problem with their sheep. “If
you watch sheep,” Elliott explains,
“they can be pastured right in
among the trees. But if they run
short of grass, they’ll eat the tops
of the trees worse than deer will.”
They no longer raise sheep.
In one of the fields with a
magnificent view of the Tuscarora
Mountains stands a rare tree - a
huge, perfectly shaped Douglas fir
that has never been trimmed. The
Elliotts plan to collect seeds from
this tree with the hope of raising
more trees like it.
It will take a long time and a lot
of work to grow another tree of that
size, but with the care and skill
that are evident at Elliott’s Nur
sery and Christmas Tree Farms, it
will be accomplished.