Real Christmas trees are a farm crop, and they come in many kinds — firs, pines, spruces and more. USDA counts each kind on its own line. This quiz is about just one kind, the white spruce, and it counts money: the dollars growers took in from selling white spruce Christmas trees during 2024. In USDA’s 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, 18 states have a printed figure; 6 more are hidden behind the withheld mark, and the other 26 have no line at all. Put these three in order, most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→3 in order
Oregon! Oregon is the Christmas tree state, so it must win this one too. Easy 🐾
2Answer
The real order is…
Connecticut — $417,580 from white spruce Christmas trees, about a quarter of the $1,631,024 USDA counted for the whole country, and about 1.2× second-place Michigan. These are national places: everything USDA did not print adds up to $78,524, less than each of the top six states’ figures, so no hidden state can climb into the top six. Now, was Biscuit wrong about Oregon? Only about the white spruce. Count every kind of Christmas tree together, in dollars, and Oregon really is first in the country, at $119,960,258, with North Carolina second. Connecticut is twelfth in that line. Yet in USDA’s white spruce table, Oregon and North Carolina have no line at all. One more turn: count the white spruce trees instead of the dollars, and Michigan is first in the country, with Connecticut second. So Connecticut sold fewer white spruce trees than Michigan, and still took in more money for them. USDA does not say why, and this quiz does not guess.
📚 BackgroundThe white spruce is one kind of evergreen among the many sold as Christmas trees. North Carolina State University’s Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox describes its needles as “4-sided pale green to glaucous green needles” (glaucous means covered with a whitish-blue bloom) and says: “The short soft needles, pyramidal form, and stiff branches make it an excellent candidate for a Christmas tree.” It also notes that the tree “grows in cool climates, cannot tolerate hot, humid summers.” (The toolbox files the tree under a newer scientific name, Picea laxa, and lists Picea glauca as the name it was previously known by.) The page does not say why Connecticut’s growers take in more money for white spruce Christmas trees than any other state’s. Neither does this quiz.(North Carolina State University Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, “Picea laxa (… White Spruce),” Description and Leaves. Quotations unchanged)↗ (opens in a new tab)
🐕Biscuit's fun facts
📚 Stated as fact by textbooks / public agencies
Long ago, Connecticut was mostly forest. By the early 1800s, farms were spreading fast, and so much forest had been cleared that only a small part of the state was still wooded. Then things turned around. In 1830 the Erie Canal opened, and within twenty years Connecticut's small, stony farms could not keep up with bigger farms farther west. Many hillside farms were abandoned (left behind), and forests began to come back. In the old fields, wildflowers came first. Then trees that like open, grassy places moved in, white pine first of all.
One of the state's earliest conservationists, James L. Goodwin, studied at the Yale School of Forestry. In 1913 he bought land in Hampton, Connecticut: some white pine and an open field. His first crop was Christmas trees, which he planted in 1921, and he sold a crop every year from 1924 until 1964. He tried red pines, spruces and white pines, and his “Pine Acres Farm” grew to about two thousand acres. In 1964 he gave this forest to the state. Today it is the James L. Goodwin State Forest, with a center where visitors can learn about forestry.
Oregon! Oregon is the Christmas tree state, so it must win this one too. Easy 🐾
3Compare
White spruce Christmas trees sold (dollars, 2024)
🇺🇸 United States (national)1,631,024 dollars
Connecticut#1417,580 dollars
Most: Connecticut (417,580 dollars); smallest printed number: Kentucky (2,400 dollars). Remember this is only the white spruce line. A state that grows mostly firs or pines can look small here and still sell a lot of Christmas trees.
Note: dollars from cut white spruce Christmas trees sold during 2024, from USDA’s five-yearly Census of Horticultural Specialties. Other kinds of Christmas tree — firs, pines, other spruces — are on other lines. This is money, not a count of trees. The United States bar is USDA’s own national figure. USDA NASS. USDA printed a white spruce figure for 18 states. Six more — Alaska, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Washington and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. The other 26 states, Oregon and North Carolina among them, have no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to $78,524. That is less than each of the top six states’ figures, so the first six places are national places; from seventh place down, the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none, and a state with no line is not the same as a state with no white spruces. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Trees or dollars? Say which, and then I will tell you who wins 🐾
USDA printed a white spruce figure for 18 states. Six more — Alaska, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Washington and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. The other 26 states, Oregon and North Carolina among them, have no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to $78,524. That is less than each of the top six states’ figures, so the first six places are national places; from seventh place down, the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none, and a state with no line is not the same as a state with no white spruces. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties))
Sources
Data as of: 2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties)
USDA NASS Quick Stats: CUT CHRISTMAS TREES, SPRUCE, WHITE - SALES, MEASURED IN $, 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, by state↗ (opens in a new tab) (2026-09-25) — Published values only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA printed a white spruce Christmas tree sales figure for 18 states. Six more — Alaska, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Washington and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. The other 26 states, Oregon and North Carolina among them, have no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to $78,524 — less than each of the top six states’ figures — so the first six places here are national places. From seventh place down, the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none, and a state with no line is not the same as a state with no white spruces. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick CENSUS / Census of Horticultural Specialties, year 2024, commodity CUT CHRISTMAS TREES, short description CUT CHRISTMAS TREES, SPRUCE, WHITE - SALES, MEASURED IN $, Total domain, and compare states.