DeLong Farms Christmas Tree Farming: A Legend Fresh from Nova Scotia

DeLong Farms Christmas Trees is run by brothers Jim and Ralph DeLong in conjunction with their sister, Patricia DeLong, who manages the DeLong Farms Wreath business, DeLong Farms Christmas Wreaths, that she founded in the 1980's. DeLong Farms, as a Christmas tree company, however, was founded by their hard working, visionary father, Ottis Laurence DeLong of New Germany, many years before. Through stalwart effort and with a swift entrepreneurial mind, Ottis DeLong transformed the Nova Scotian Christmas tree industry and helped define how the world saw Nova Scotian Balsam fir Christmas trees.

Ralph DeLong, an intelligent and economic manager, in an interview, smirks as he remembers what his father, Ottis, told him about how DeLong Farms started as a Christmas tree business. “Firstly, we were, and still are, a poultry and beef farm. Christmas trees were, for my father and many other people in Lunenburg at that time, a seasonal business that they took part in during the Holidays. Even the smallest New Germany land owner would cut some Balsam fir out in the woods and ship them over the border or into Upper Canada.” Ralph smiles again, “Ottis and his father, Herman DeLong, would load a single axle truck with Balsam fir cut from New Germany and drive them all the way to New York and New Jersey for sale. It says a lot when, even back then, people were keen to have a Nova Scotian Balsam fir Christmas tree in their New England home.”

“Another interesting fact,” Ralph is quick to point out, “is that DeLong Farms was one of the first to start using seed trees and saplings in Nova Scotia. You have to understand, there was no such thing as Christmas tree farming in my grandfather's day. Farmers from New Germany would simply go out into the woods and cut in the few areas that had the best trees. While these areas played a large role in the quality of the Balsam fir, it was the parent plants, the seed trees, that made the largest difference. By harvesting the cones from a select few ideal Balsam fir seed trees, chosen for their deep green coloring and thick needles, and planting them in the forest, Nova Scotian farmers such as my father, Ottis DeLong, really became pioneers in the industry and incidentally the first Christmas tree farmers as well.”

Jim DeLong, an energetic and enthusiastic entrepreneur in the Christmas tree industry, was happy to point out the history behind DeLong Farms Christmas trees. “You'll have to understand that Christmas tree farming in New Germany is a great deal different from other Christmas tree farms you may find outside of Nova Scotia. There's something about Lunenburg that makes for a great Balsam fir Christmas tree. In all honesty, it's a bit of a mystery, but the trees that are harvested from a natural, New Germany woodland are perhaps some of the best you'll find on the world market today. When you select from the best Nova Scotian Balsam fir seed trees and plant their saplings in the forests of Lunenburg, you'll have an excellent Christmas tree. These trees are thicker, fuller, healthier, and retain their needles perhaps better than any other evergreen in the world.”

When pressed, Jim expands on the topic; “I don't want to speak ill of our competitors outside of Nova Scotia, but growing Christmas trees in Lunenburg is a much easier business. While Upper Canadians and Americans have to almost grow open fields of Christmas trees, in Lunenburg County we simply plant the Balsam fir in the forests where they flourish naturally. The climate, the weather, and the soil in Lunenburg are simply ideal for Balsam fir. Where farms out West have to rely on fertilizers and pesticides, in Nova Scotia, Balsam fir grows best in an organically balanced environment. When you grow a Balsam fir in an open field, you have to spray the ground with a pesticide to keep competition down, but these chemicals affect the tree's health as well. Also, with the ground cover gone, the soil heaves with the winter frost, damaging the roots of the trees even further. Luckily, in Nova Scotia,” Jim smiles, “we simply plant the trees sporadically in the forest where they can grow in balance with the other wild plants and can be harvested a few years later as a stronger, healthier Balsam fir Christmas tree for it. Ralph gets frustrated when people advertise “organic” Balsam fir Christmas trees.” Jim smiles widely, “In Nova Scotia, it's just a given.”

In the Christmas tree industry today, another major factor in the quality of a Christmas tree is its shape, density, and thickness, or how it is sheared. “It wasn't until over forty years ago that we started shearing Christmas trees.” Jim laughs. “My father, Ottis DeLong, really brought attention to Lunenburg Christmas trees when homes in New York started getting loads of perfectly groomed Christmas trees from Nova Scotia. Originally, Christmas trees were very wild looking: long branches with oddly spaced needles. If you shear a tree every summer, not only do they become deeper, and fuller, but the needles get a healthy thick dispersal that you can only achieve through years of regular shearing. When my father was the first to start shearing his trees in Lunenburg, the time and effort that went into each tree became substantial, but after a few years, the craftsmanship of the trade really began to show in the quality of DeLong Farms Christmas trees. The annual care by a skilled Christmas tree farmer can make all the difference in a quality Balsam fir Christmas tree.”

Estella DeLong, Ottis DeLong's wife, during her interview, reminisced on the words her late husband said to her over fifty years ago. “I remember it was 1955 because Patricia was just a little girl and I was still pregnant with Ralph. Ottis took us for a Sunday drive and drove us up to a hill out past a wood lot that had just been recently planted with a few Balsam fir saplings. They were still only a few inches high, but I can remember how much Ottis appreciated them. After taking a picture of Patricia and I, he looked down again at the lot and said, “I think these trees are the way of the future.” It's funny that after all these years, Jim and Ralph would make Christmas trees such a large part of DeLong farms, and Patricia would grow to have her own Christmas wreath company. It shows how much Christmas tree farming is a family business; Ottis would have been proud to see his sons cut a tree he could have planted and sheared more than thirty years ago.”