SMETHPORT — It was a cold, damp morning last week when Donald “Corky” Hull jumped out of his full-size pickup truck and took a brisk walk up the hill to look over Christmas trees on his Smethport farm.
It’s an act the 88-year-old has likely done thousands of times over the past four decades — and hopes to continue for more holiday seasons to come.
Hull, who retired from a career in banking a number of years ago and is a widower, said maintaining the Christmas tree farm at his Hamlin Street property is an avocation that keeps him young and active.
The past several weeks, Hull has done final touch-ups and shearings on Fraser fir Christmas trees to make sure they’re ready for customers when they arrive after Thanksgiving. He said many are regular customers who have stopped by year after year for the experience of walking through a field, snowy or not, to pick out and cut trees on the hillside. Some customers even show up earlier in the season to tag trees, as was evidenced by bright pink strings of tape seen tied to the branches of a fir in Hull’s field.
Hull said he started in the business approximately 40 years ago after attending a Christmas tree seminar at Penn State University in State College. While there, he not only learned how to properly plant, shear and care for a tree farm, but also how to make wreaths.
“A girl from up in New York state sold the rings (for wreaths), the bows and machines” to crimp rings that hold wreath boughs in place, Hull recalled. After watching the artisan make a wreath on the crimping machine, Hull bought the device for $150 and has been making wreaths ever since. It was the best investment he ever made.
Hull said the care of the three-acre farm, which contains several hundred trees of varying sizes, is a year-round endeavor that includes watering and fertilizing, as needed.
“You have to shear the trees every year after July,” he noted. “You have to shape them … it takes two to three minutes to do a tree.”
He said he is “self-employed” when it comes to this task, as the shearing process is something of an art and takes a couple of weeks to complete all of the trees.
“You have to do it a few times until you get the angle you want” for each sheared tree, he explained.
Hull receives some help from his son, Tim Hull, during the selling season if they get multiple customers who purchase trees priced at $20 and wreaths that cost $15. He has charged these same fees the past 20 years. When Hull started the business in the late 1970s, he remembers charging between $7 and $8 per tree.
As for how long he’ll keep on with the business, he is unsure.
“I did have a lot more trees than I have now,” Hull admitted. “When I hit 80, I started slowing down. I quit planting for two or three years, but people kept coming and asked ‘Are you going to have trees next year.’”
As a result, he began planting trees again on a lower field. They are now between 2 feet and 3 feet in height and will be easier for him and customers to harvest.
When Hull isn’t at his farm and homestead, he engages in a long list of other activities including hunting, canoeing, cross-country skiing and weekly square dancing at the Olean (N.Y.) Senior Center.
For more information on Hull’s Christmas tree farm, call (814) 568-2143.
