There are a series of secretive cash drops, about three cell phone numbers and a land line that connect the street force to cash managers and suppliers, specific phone calls that need to be made after the border crossing, and a boss known by some as the “Myth.” Welcome to the Christmas tree business in New York City.

Kevin Hammer, the man behind the majority of sidewalk tree stands in the city, runs a cash-only conifer enterprise that some former and current employees say grosses more than a million dollars during the monthlong holiday season.

Although Mr. Hammer’s mostly French-Canadian workforce has been specifically instructed not to speak publicly about his business practices, several of Mr. Hammer’s experienced tree-sellers, asking to remain anonymous in fear of not getting paid, spoke with The New York Sun to explain how the city’s largest Christmas tree business operates.

“Everything is very organized and incredibly secretive,” one tree seller who works for Mr. Hammer said.

Mr. Hammer rarely, if ever, visits the stands. Underneath him in the company hierarchy is a layer of supervisors. Each stand has a supervisor assigned to manage day to day operations and to make sure the front-line troops, treesellers, are stocked with enough trees, stands, and tools of the trade like axes and clippers.The supervisors carry cell phones and are always on call.

“I don’t think the supervisors are the ones watching us from afar, but it feels like someone is always keeping tabs on us,” the tree seller said over chicken fingers and cognac at a bar near the Manhattan stand where he sells trees.

Every day, a “collector”arrives at the stand in a SUV with Florida license plates. He pulls up at an unannounced time after the tree-seller has called a number with a 212 area code saying how much cash was collected for the day.

When the collector arrives, the tree seller approaches the car with an envelope full of cash from the day’s sales up his or her jacket sleeve, according to the source. The “drop” includes a daily cash report worksheet printed in both English and French and is passed to the “collector” through the passenger side window. Conversation is usually brief.

“We’re instructed only to give money to the collector, nobody else, not even Kevin,” the source said.

Other employees of Mr. Hammer include an on-call electrician who maintains the generators that power Christmas lights, as well as “shufflers” who move trees between the stands in order to keep inventories stocked.

One man who worked for Mr. Hammer for eight years and is now a competitor, Bart Miazga, said Mr. Hammer is just a hard-nosed businessman trying to run a cash business.

Even though the Christmas tree business is a one-month gig, Mr. Hammer spends months planning for the season, the source said.

The wheels start turning in September when would-be tree-sellers call a 1-800 number to sign up for the season. Rookie tree-sellers are sized up by Mr. Hammer’s staff. “He asks you about your weight, height, work experience, criminal record; stuff like that,” the source said.

The staff then assembles the work teams,usually made up of two males,or a male and a female.

As the holiday season approaches, tree sellers are required to periodically check in with Mr. Hammer’s staff, at first every two weeks, and then every two days.

The season arrives on a different day each year at the end of November, and tree sellers are mandated to call Mr. Hammer’s staff before they embark on the long journey to the city. They must call again after crossing the border and a third time when the designated site in the city is reached. Within about 24 hours, a series of work crews arrive to build stands, start-up generators, put up Christmas lights, and stock trees.

Some of Mr. Hammer’s tree-sellers say that money isn’t the reason they work 12-hour, sometimes overnight shifts, and camp out on the frigid streets of New York for a month.

“This is my first time in New York,” a 56 year-old from a town near Montreal who is working at one of Mr. Hammer’s stands for the first time, Yves Drolet, said. “I wanted to see the city and ground zero. I don’t care about the money.”

One of Mr. Hammer’s former employees who currently works for another tree business in the city said the average tree-stand grosses about $30,000 a season, of which Mr. Hammer promises employees 50% of the profit after expenses.

“There is no way of knowing the expenses,” the source said. “You don’t know the cost of each tree.”

Tree-sellers receive cash payments from Mr. Hammer’s staff on the night of December 24, after excess trees have been collected and stands have been dismantled. The amount varies each year, and tree-sellers on the same team sometimes get paid different wages.

“Last year I was paid more than my partner, and we split the money on the way back to Canada” the source currently working for Mr. Hammer said.”It may have been seniority, but I really think it was because someone working for the company was watching and saw my partner taking breaks.”

In the cash business of city Christmas trees, vendors generally don’t charge customers a specific sales tax. Mr. Miazga said vendors pay a tax to customs when trees cross the border from Canada, exonerating the businesses from state sales tax.

However, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Michael Bucci, said that tree vendors are required to charge sales tax, but so long as no receipt is given, the sales tax can be included in the price of the tree, similar to the way tax is built-in to the price of a beer at a city bar. He said that Mr. Hammer had no record of tax evasion in the state.

Tree prices at Mr. Hammers stands vary dramatically, and are dependent on the location of the stand. Buyers in affluent neighborhoods generally pay more for trees.

“We’re told to get the highest price possible, but to always sell the trees even if we get bargained down,” the source currently working for Mr. Hammer said.

Mr. Hammer did not return phone messages from the Sun.