December 25 How Many Trees?

Out in the yard today, I noticed these sapling spruces growing under a bench in the driveway.  This made me wonder, how many Christmas trees are growing in the United States? I read that there are over 300 million Christmas trees growing on 15,000 farms scattered throughout all 50 states. 25-30 million of these are sold each winter, which means that people prefer artificial to real Christmas trees by a 2 to 1 ratio. Of course, then there are some families like mine, who have an artificial tree but have recently been buying real trees. In any case, 350,000 acres of land are growing fir, spruce, and pine trees that produce oxygen and create habitat for an average of seven years before they go into our living rooms.