In 1990 36.3 million American households opted to buy artificial Christmas trees; by 2000 that number had shot up to 50.6 million.

The numbers gathered by the National Christmas Tree Association show why business isn’t exactly booming for area Christmas Tree Farms.

&uot;I’m not getting rich,&uot; Ferriday tree farmer Marie Potts said. &uot;I make a little bit every year, but not enough to retire on.&uot;

Though the number of tree farms in the Louisiana-Mississippi Christmas Tree Association has fallen over the years, national predictions are looking up for the current season, according to the NCTA, and Potts is hopeful.

&uot;Business is pretty good right now,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s in line with what I did last year.&uot;

Potts’ three-acre, 1,000-tree farm on Doty Road is a year-round job for her to maintain.

In February she will replant, in March she’ll start spraying for bugs and fungus on a three-week rotation, and in April trimming and shaping starts.

On top of buying the chemicals used for spraying Potts has workman’s compensation and liability insurance for the farm that add to annual expenses.

Potts’ farm, Marie’s Trees, opens the weekend before Thanksgiving and stays open every weekend until Christmas. Trees range in price from $15 to $80.

Marie’s Trees has been open since the mid-1990s and most of her customers are repeats each year, she said. She knows she’s probably lost some to artificial trees, but she said she can count on most of her customers to come back.

Potts said she isn’t sure if she wants to continue in the farming business and has been downsizing her tree farm for several years.

The workload versus the profit led Ellen Hefley to close down her 10-year-old Natchez tree farm a few years ago.

&uot;Sales had dropped off because of all the imported trees,&uot; Hefley said. &uot;It’s very labor intensive and there were too many being shipped in from out of town. It was fun while it lasted.&uot;

Closing up shop isn’t something Catahoula Parish’s Faye Fletcher is thinking about right now, even though her husband walked away from Fletcher’s Christmas Tree Farm several years ago.

&uot;He gave up on us,&uot; Fletcher said of her husband. &uot;But my son’s still here. We’ve been in business for 18 years now.&uot;

The longevity of the farm is something Fletcher said she thinks keeps business up.

&uot;We have true people that have always been with us for years,&uot; she said. &uot;If you go artificial you are going to stay there about two years, then you’ll be back.&uot;

Fletcher’s farm, between Sicily Island and Clayton, is a 40-acre plot with 15 acres of trees.

&uot;We are very conservative,&uot; Fletcher said. &uot;We own all our tractors, I do the spraying, my son does the mowing and the shearing and we make a lot of our own stuff.&uot;

The farm plays host to several school field trips in the months before Christmas and always has holiday food and candy available for visitors. Fletcher said the prettiest trees cost around $35.

Fletcher’s is open daily from dawn to dusk.