FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 95 



In the preceding table I will call attention to the fact that two 

 trees, Nos. 5 and 25, have a very unusnal growth. As examples 

 of extremely thrifty trees, not merely for the site, but of 

 the species as a whole in the forests of the State of Maine their 

 schedules are given. They stood in hard wood land, on fairly 

 deep and generous soil. The larger one was chosen in collecting 

 strength test material as the best developed tree in the vicinity, a 

 judgment from outside marks which its internal structure thor- 

 oughly justifies. 



No 5 similarly was picked as a very thrifty, full-crowned tree 

 in favorable conditions. It was putting on diameter at the rate of 

 an inch in five years, while its height growth for the last 18 years 

 was 20 3-4 feet. This is very rapid work for a forest-grown black 

 spruce. Yet this tree's prosperity is only of recent date ; it prob- 

 ably began about 30 years ago. The inner rings in the butt were 

 too fine to count with certainty, while the measures show that at 

 about 150 years of age the tree was only about 4 inches in diame- 

 ter and 20 feet high. It was not only at that time a very back- 

 ward tree, but it has since chaoged entirely in shape. 



Th's fact is brought out here not merely to illustrate the vicissi- 

 tudes of tree life, but also to attest the vitality that remains in a 

 spruce even after long and severe suppression. Such facts, con- 

 firmed as they are by others cropping up on every hand, character- 

 ize our spruce as a tough and long winded species so to speak, a 

 tree that can be counted on to perpetuate itself by forcing its way 

 when necessary through unfavorable conditions. 



