Entitled: "Christmas tree market, New York City" circa 1885-95. In the early 1800s the Christmas Tree was introduced in the United States by German settlers. It rapidly grew from tabletop size to floor-to-ceiling. By 1851 they began to be sold commercially and were taken at random from nearby forests. Due to over harvesting, the natural supply of evergreens began to be decimated in the salt 1900s. Conservationists became alarmed, and many magazines began to encourage people to substitute an artificial "snow" covered tree, consisting of a branch of a deciduous tree wrapped in cotton. The first Christmas Tree farm was started in 1901 when W.V. McGalliard planted 25,000 Norway spruce on his farm in New Jersey. Theodore Roosevelt tried to stop the practice of having Christmas Trees out of concern about the destruction of forests. His two sons didn't agree and enlisted the help of conservationist Gifford Pinchot to persuade the president that, done properly, the practice was not harmful to the forests. Approximately 25-30 million Real Christmas Trees are sold each year in the United States. Almost all of these come from Christmas Tree plantations. Date based on presence of Barclay Street Station, New York Central & Hudson Railroad in background. Photographed by the Detroit Publishing Company, 1901.