Shade Tree and Timbek Destroying Fungi. 



253 



Trametes Abietis on The Ked Spruce. 



An interesting example of a red spruce {Picea ruhra) was exam- 

 ined during September, 1898, in the Adirondack mountains. This 

 was near Nehasane, Herkimer Co., on the tract owned by Dr. Seward 

 Webb. Througli the courtesy of Prof. C. S. Graves, who then had 

 the supervision of the forestry operations on this tract, I liad the 

 privilege of following the lumbernmn for two days to inspect trees, 

 or portions of trees, which were discarded after they had been felled. 



In this particular case the entire tree had been discarded, although 

 two loc>:s liad been cut from the 

 trunk. On approaching the tree 

 I first came upon the stump, and 

 searched here for some evidence 

 of the reason for rejecting the 

 timber. Near the periphery of 

 the stump, in the older sap wood 

 near its junction with the heart 

 wood was a crescent shaped area 

 in cross section about 3 cm. 

 broad and 15 cm. loner. This 

 was distinctly marked off from 

 the surrounding portion by the 

 coarser fractures of the wood bv 

 the cross cut saw used in fellino- 

 the tree. This indicated that 

 the wood was here slightly '' dozed." The remainder of the stump 

 was sound. This small area showing such a slight alteration in the 

 wood probably would not have been considered objectionable. 



On examining the cut made for the first log, 16 feet above, 

 the entire heart proved to be badly decayed. A large part of 

 the sap wood was also invaded, and the cambium was being 

 encroached npon. There remained onl}^ a thick shell of living and 

 unaffected tissue underneath the bark. The heart wood was so soft 

 that the fracture from the saw teeth was irregular, roughly cut and 

 partially "ironed" down by friction from the saw blade. Still 

 another log above this one had been cut off by the woodmen in the 



87. — Pockets of decayed tissue in limb 

 of red 8j)ruce^ 



