Christmas past: 1940s N.B. tree farming ways preserved in vintage video

A man inspects a tree in 1940s Northern New Brunswick. (Source: Margaret Perry)

It’s an early Christmas present for tree farmer Matthew Wright : watching a perfectly preserved 1940s video of balsam trees being farmed, cut and sold in northern New Brunswick.

“The first thing that struck me was, ‘Oh my, this is how trees were sold in Nova Scotia growing up,” Wright said.

As a third-generation tree farmer living in New Germany, N.S., balsam fir trees are a big part of Wright’s life. He says watching one of late Nova Scotia filmmaker Margaret Perry’s earliest videos of trees being cut and loaded onto trucks, trains and ships is “fascinating.”

“Farmers would bring ‘em to a field, and buyers from different companies would go along, look at them, and offer them a price per tree,” Wright explains. “It was an auction process then. I’m talking the 50s and 60s. Then the crew would come in and bail them just like that.”

It’s a process clearly captured in Perry’s six-minute-and-32-second-long video, “Christmas Trees,” which is available online for public viewing.

“I will never forget being a nine-year-old watching just how slick they were cutting those trees with two blows of an ax. That’s precision. These guys would cut the butts in a nice straight line for packing,” Wright says.

Wright, who is also a member of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association and works in plant health and research, noted how healthy the trees appeared 80 years ago.

“The second thing that struck me was how well formed those trees were,” he says. “Most of the trees they were handling were beautiful, genetic specimens. I wish I had a few of those left for breeding.”

Most Christmas trees available at lots nowadays are thicker and heavier due to years of shearing, Wright explains. He notes it’s more practical now to bale trees in the woods so they can be transported with their limbs intact.

“It’s one of the few quality videos,” he says. “It’s not unusual to see some photos, but a video like this? Wow, I tell you, that’s special. I really enjoyed it.”

For Wright, it’s a rare glimpse of the history of the trade which was lucrative for rural communities.

“When treeing season hit, it touched so many people. Carpenters would stop and go contracting for the large companies to produce trees. Farmers would go to their woodlots to produce trees and brush. It really was part of the cash flow,” he says. “A lot of ladies would make the husband cut the brush, bring it home, and they would make wreaths at night. A lot of times that was funding their extra expenditures at Christmas. So, it really was important to helping rural people have a really good, rich Christmas.”

Film history

Margaret Perry (1905-1998) is of Canada’s most prolific early filmmakers. Between 1945 and 1969, Perry produced more than 50 films for the Nova Scotia Film Bureau.

The “Christmas Tree” film was kept in storage with Perry’s family in Toronto for years until Halifax-based film and media studies researcher and professor Jennifer VanderBurgh digitized it with Perry’s other works. VanderBurgh estimates the Christmas tree film was created in 1940 or 1941, while Perry was in her thirties, and right before she left New Brunswick to work in Ottawa for the National Film Board of Canada.

“We can also date the film partly because Stanley Perry, Margaret Perry’s son, is the child that’s running toward the camera and away from the camera at the top and tail of the film,” VanderBurgh explains. “He looks like he’s about three years old.”

It’s also a silent film. VanderBurgh points out the film would have been projected and accompanied by a scripted commentary Perry would’ve read while the film was rolling.

“Certainly the way it was shot, and the length of the shots, suggests that there was commentary over top that would explain what we were watching. For example, the closeup of the Christmas tree harvester cutting the tree, and the closeup of the tool that’s used to do it. This would’ve likely been accompanied by an explanation of what the viewer was seeing,” VanderBurgh says.

It’s one of Perry’s earliest works, serving as a hobby at the time. She would go on to produce more than 50 films for the Nova Scotia government, most of them highlighting the everyday labour that went into making commodities.

“This was one of the films that was likely a calling card that got her into the film production business,” says VanderBurgh. “The films she was making from 1940 to 1942 were just about things that interested her. She would show those to friends and in community screenings, some of which were advertised in local newspapers.”

The filming location isn’t exactly known, but VanderBurgh speculates it was in northern New Brunswick.

“I’d be really interested if anybody recognizes the location of the market. I know she was living around Bathurst at the time,” VanderBurgh says.

Family in film

Perry’s granddaughter Leanna Griffith sent the family’s collection of Perry’s work to VanderBurgh, who’s writing a book on Perry’s life, and Nova Scotia Archives.

“One of the things that is kind of evident is that back then, you couldn’t document things as easily as you can now,” says Griffiths.

The family is grateful Perry’s projects are beginning to receive attention.

“I’m incredibly proud of her,” she says. “I think it’s about time she got some credit for what she did, because she did a lot for Nova Scotia, and it’s so nice to see that people are interested in her, what she did, and how she did it.”

Speaking from her home in Keswick, Ontario, looking at the Christas tree video is deeply personal for Griffith.

“That was one of the first movies that she was putting together. She was still honing her craft, as it were. And that little person in the red snowsuit running down the hill is my dad. So, she wanted to capture the excitement of going and getting the Christmas tree, and they would do that, but she wanted to look at the bigger picture, the bigger industry, because a lot of people don’t know where their Christmas tree comes from. So, it was her way of showing the world what they did, and how they did it, and what was involved I the industry of it,” she says.

Griffith says she was admiring the photos of her late grandmother and late father when she received the request to talk about the 1940s Christmas tree video.

“Because the first thing that went through my head was, ‘That’s the one where my dad is running up and down the hill.’ It’s almost like he was saying, ‘I’m still here. Don’t forget about me.’

“I’m incredibly proud of her. I think it’s about time she got some credit for what she did, because she did a lot for Nova Scotia, and it’s so nice to see that people are interested in her, what she did, and how she did it.”

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.