Jerry Fleming drives a green-and-yellow John Deere tractor around Butler’s Orchard, circling the rows upon rows of Christmas trees — planted in fields he personally pulled the stumps from years ago and hand-sheared by him and his co-workers recently as they prepared for the holiday rush.

“It’s never cold here — the weather might be cold, but the way we work, it’s never cold,” said Fleming, sporting overalls, a black-and-yellow flannel and sunglasses perched on his hat

Fleming is one of the many workers at Butler’s Orchard in Germantown who work months, and years, for a couple of weeks of sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas — when they start all over again.

Ben Butler, the farm’s finance and farm manager, calls the Christmas tree farm industry an “old man’s game” in reference to the

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