Agriculture Report - The Business of Christmas Trees

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Christmas	For	From	Special	a	and	artificial
be	bought	can	compared	cut	enjoy	estimates	group	of
or	pages	radio	say	says	the	to	trees	up

VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report in English. Tall or short, fat or thin, natural, plastic metal. Whatever the choice, the National Christmas Tree Association Americans bought over 40 million Christmas trees last year. trees are grown and harvested in all 50 states. time in the city usually means buying trees already and waiting to be sold. But some people like drive to tree farms. Others wait for their tree come to them, or they order one from the of a catalog or even on the Internet. Some the easiest thing of all is to buy an tree with Christmas lights already on it. The National Tree Association represents growers and sellers of most of farm-raised Christmas trees in the United States. The group that 9.5 million artificial trees were sold in 2011 to almost 31 million natural ones. So, people still the appearance and smell of natural trees more. The says people paid an average of around $35 for natural Christmas tree and twice as much for an one. But artificial trees, which mostly come from China, be re-used for years. Most natural trees are cut and recycled, but some people buy trees that can planted. The association says 16 percent of people who natural trees last year chose them at a farm cut the tree themselves. 84 percent bought them already . Most Christmas trees are now grown on farms instead in forests. The trees take 6 to 10 years grow. In some states, less than half the planted survive the weather conditions to become someone's Christmas tree. VOA Learning English, I'm Alex Villarreal. (Adapted from a program broadcast 01Jan2013)

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