Country Enterprise - growing christmas trees; pick your own.

<P> To produce the ideal sought-after tree requires a lot of weeding or the branches do not spread out at the bottom. </p><p>If you have to pay for this labour, the return on the trees is very small. Of course, a willing family can help a lot throughout the year. A good way to avoid the labour of harvesting the trees is to sell them on a 'pick your own' basis. This only works when you are reasonably near a centre of population: if you are it can be a great gimmick. </p><p>It is very necessary to have adequate facilities for cars parking and turning, bearing in mind that most Christmases are wet. Purchasers who saw down their trees leave you with the work of removing the stump so it is well worth encouraging them to dig the whole thing up. As this is an occupation that removes father and children from the house for a considerable time during the Christmas rush, it is a good idea to slant your advertising towards the harrassed wife and mother. As people tend to be in a jolly mood at this time of year, it is worth having holly, mistletoe and perhaps also farm eggs available for sale. </p><p>It seems that more and more people are reverting to a natural Christmas tree but bearing in mind the vast areas designated to their growth in remote areas, yours must be well shaped and reasonably priced to compete. </P><P ALIGN=RIGHT> <A HREF=woodland6a.htm TARGET=mainframe STYLE="text-decoration: none">...next</A></P>