Ole pirates dem a rob I, says 77-year-old Christmas tree farmer - Petty thieves inconveniencing Penlyne Castle farmers
Published:Wednesday | December 4, 2019 | 12:06 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
Mancy Hardy, a 77-year-old farmer of Penlyne Castle, St Thomas, has two large farms. On them he plants and prunes his ‘Christmas trees’, which he then sells in bulk to other neighbouring farmers for the massive, seasonal sale along the malls on Constant Spring Road in St Andrew during the Yuletide season.
It is his main means of income and at his age, he relies heavily on making enough money to “tie him over” the long, almost “barren” months of the following year.
On any given day, Hardy can be found attending to his many trees on one of his farms. Silently walking between the evergreens, he sizes them up for “shaping”, but he knows that by nightfall, thieves may decide to raid his farm to steal some of the trees he has earmarked for sale.
“Every year, it happens that when I sleep, is dat time dem come tief me things. That’s why you see I have to plant so much that I can get something, enuh. And what dem no want dem throw in the gully after dem cut it down and it nuh suit dem,” lamented Hardy, while casting his eyes on the stumps of freshly cut trees thieves made off with the previous night.
“Is so it go, it seems to me, because some of the people dem nuh want work hard anymore, but when you labour dem prey pon your things,” he said.
Hardy, who has been in the cultivation of evergreen trees for more than 25-years, said he cannot put a figure to the number of trees stolen from his two properties, but said the amount was significant, even if he and the other famers failed to make reports to the police.
He said it is an inconvenience more than a crime to them.
“It is not a big thing, but it does happen,” said Rudolph ‘Bunny’ Watson, a neighbouring farmer. “Mancy is a very hard worker and as you see, him put a lot into his work, so we all feel bad when the trees are taken like that,” he added.
The Cedar Valley police, who has jurisdiction over the community, indicated that crime is almost a non-existent factor there.
“Crime in Penlyne Castle is so low, it’s no factor at all. We have had no report of theft there in relation to tree growers or anything else, so if that’s happening, even on a miniscule scale, the residents have not seen it fit to make such a report,” an officer at the police station said.
Unsurprisingly, although there is a market for the trees and a steady increase in a customer base that seems always ready to purchase each season, it is difficult to generate any significant help, unless family members play a part.
Hardy is a loner; his many trees serve as his companions in many ways.
He said, however, that even with the robust sales in Christmas trees over the years, it does little in terms of an incentive to young people.
“It is very hard work here. It takes time to get it done, to shape so many trees is not easy and on top of that, we can’t even get help; especially the young people, dem nuh want this as work.
“They don’t get involve because is a whole heap a work, from January to October every year. It is labour-intensive and dem nuh want dat. Dem love it easy, and is dem who would love to come cut down a tree and steal it a night-time, than to work the farm,” Hardy said.