was the abundance of deer, they loved eating the young trees. It would be often that we'd find trees literally eaten in 1/2, and then you would have a 1/2 of a tree, which you of course you couldn't sell. So, you could either replace a batch of the 1/2 eaten trees every year and go into another cycle which you had to track.

like the deer knew that they were safe there in the park (and they were)! Almost everyone in our MH park (behind the park) had, over the years, hit a deer. Fortunately none of the accidents were serious but they sure could have been. Driving through the park itself as we had to go (our way to our place was that you had to go through the park), you would encounter literally hundreds of deer, I've never seen so many in one place.

And the problem w/ the deer is that they get smaller (not enough food and such), and they get to eating anything and everything, not just Xmas trees, ornamental plants, bushes, fruit trees, grass, everything was at risk.

Further added:

And by the way, it was nothing for people to stop by, when no one was there at the tree farm, and swipe a tree from us (we had like 20 acres in the front of the property), we would drive up on our gravel road and immediately notice a tree or so missing. It was frustrating, w/ all of the work we put into it, planting, pruning, fertilizing, mowing, etc.

I can't grow daylilies or any nice flowers in my garden. They treat it like their free salad bar every night. I think they don't like geraniums because those seem to be safe. It must be worse out in the suburbs but I don't really know.

A major driving hazard around here (Philly burbs), I didn’t know they ate small trees! There’s herds of them in my neighborhood. Just about everyone I know has hit one at one time.

Seriously, my neighbor, across the road from me, has probably 1000 15/20 footers in the field that was once an awesome hayfield back 30 years ago. If there folks with 20' ceilings have a need, got a lotta trees to ship south. Say, $15,00/ft plus carrier costs?

No longer need to. No kids, no wife, no reason. I do have a wreath up at the entrance. That's the extent of my Christmas.