FERRIDAY &8212; The fields look like a little slice of Christmas.

About 900 trees, most between six and eight feet tall, stand in long straight rows waiting to be taken home from Marie&8217;s Trees, a local Christmas tree farm.

Just 10 years ago, this land used to be cornfields, not rows of evergreens.

But growing crops caused a problem. Erosion was slowly eating away at the fields and soil runoff was filling up part of Jenkins Lake, a small body of water formed in an old bayou channel that runs along the western edge of owner Marie Potts&8217; property.

&8220;A friend of mine who was a conservationist told me I should grow Christmas trees,&8221; Potts said. &8220;This has stopped (the erosion).&8221;

And thus was born the tree farm. In 1995 and 1996, Potts planted several hundred seedlings, which now form the core of her sales. She&8217;s planted more in recent years to start replenishing the stock.

Potts is just one of thousands of Christmas tree growers nationwide. In Louisiana alone, some 28,000 Christmas trees with a gross farm value of $1.1 million were sold by 78 growers.

Potts&8217; farm isn&8217;t nearly as large as many of those, but she has all she can handle.

Planting a field of Christmas trees isn&8217;t as simple as throwing some seedlings in the ground. The soil has to be plowed to prepare it for planting so that trees will grow quickly and be healthy.

A field of trees Potts planted two years ago in soil that hadn&8217;t been properly prepared has struggled to grow.

&8220;I call them my Columbia trees because we planted them the same day as the Columbia disaster,&8221; Potts said. &8220;Unfortunately they seem to be having the same fate.&8221;

The planting is done in January and February, after which the real work begins.

There&8217;s the trimming. The trees don&8217;t normally have that perfect cone shape. They have to be carefully pruned and managed to look perfect, though some of Potts&8217; customers prefer a tree that doesn&8217;t isn&8217;t exactly the right shape or look.

&8220;I had some ladies ask me for some that weren&8217;t quite perfect so I let a few go without trimming for them,&8221; Potts said.

A small trimming tool, something like a weed-eater, helps speed up the trimming.

And then there&8217;s the dyeing. The trees aren&8217;t as green as most people imagine they should be. &8220;They have a yellowish color naturally, so we spray them to get that nice green color,&8221; Potts said. &8220;The colorant is the same thing they use on golf courses during the winter to keep the greens looking green.&8221;

The work keeps Potts and her hired hands busy throughout the spring and summer, and then it&8217;s time for the holidays.

The first customers came out two weeks ago to start selecting trees.