Pennsylvania Agriculture Industry: More Random Facts - Holiday Edition

As AHT readers already know, Pennsylvania leads the nation in terms of Christmas farms; here's some more interesting, related info. According to the Pennsylvania State Data Center, the Commonwealth ranked fourth in number of acres devoted to Christmas tree ("holiday tree" if you're waging a war on Christmas) production (44,905) and fourth (1,724,419) in the number of trees harvested in 2002. Berks County hosted the most Christmas tree farms in Pennsylvania (114), while Schuylkill County had the largest acreage (4,064) devoted to Christmas tree production. The Christmas tree's little sister - the poinsettia - is also a significant part of our agriculture economy. There were 140 poinsettia producers in Pennsylvania in 2004, many more than our closest competitor, New York (104). The Commonwealth ranked sixth in the nation in both production of potted poinsettias ($3.7 million) and value of sales ($13.5 million wholesale) in 2004.