I. 2. THE BLACK OR DOUBLE SPRUCE. 83 



The tree improves in size, height and vigor, with the latitude, 

 for some degrees northward of this State. It is probably most 

 perfect in the northern part of Maine or a little further north. 

 It is found in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and throughout 

 Canada, to latitude 65°, where it terminates with the paper 

 birch. 



Seven spruce trees of thirty-one years' growth, in the Botanic 

 Garden, gave an average of thirty inches in circumference, or 

 one-third of an inch annual growth in diameter. 



It rarely grows to a large size. I measured a spruce in 

 Becket, which had a circumference of five feet six inches near 

 the ground, and diminished almost imperceptibly. 



The valuable properties of the wood of double spruce, are 

 strength, lightness, elasticity and durability. As combining 

 these in a higher degree than any other wood applicable to the 

 purpose, it is used for the smaller spars of ships, for all, indeed, 

 except the masts and bowsprits, in preference to any other, ex- 

 cept the white or single spruce, and in toughness it is superior 

 to that. It is also sometimes used, in place of oak, or mingled 

 with it, in the upper part of the hull, and is found to outlast 

 the oak, and to possess the requisite tenacity. A builder in 

 New Bedford informed me that a ship over thirty years old 

 had had, during the whole time, a mizzen-mast of spruce, which, 

 when taken out, exhibited no marks of decay. Knees, also, of 

 great durability, are made of the lower part of the trunk and a 

 principal root of the spruce. It is much used for making lad- 

 ders, and extensively employed in building, being suitable for 

 the smaller timbers in the frame, and for shingles. For these 

 purposes, much spruce timber is brought to Boston from the 

 lower part of Maine, particularly of the variety called red, and 

 in pieces seventy or eighty feet long. 



Great quantities of spruce beer are annually made from the 

 recent shoots of the double spruce.* 



* This beer is said to be made by boiling the fresh branches of spruce until the 

 bark is loosened, mixing with the decoction roasted oats or barley and toasted 

 bread or biscuits, sweetening with brown sugar or molasses, and causing the liquor 

 to ferment, by means of yeast. 



