THE SITKA SPRUCE AS A TREE FOR HILL PLANTING. 7 



under the most favourable circumstances for the growth of 

 timber, and might easily be very much longer. 



Let it not be thought that I am opposed to afforestation either 

 by the State or by the individual, as that is not so. My object 

 is to show that in either case there are many and diverse interests 

 which should be very carefully considered and safeguarded before 

 it can be adopted. 



[The Hon. Ed. hopes to secure the further discussion, in the 

 next issue, of this question.] 



3. The Sitka Spruce as a Tree for Hill Planting and 

 General Afforestation. 



{With Plate.) 



By John D. Crozier. 



Amongst the many species of coniferous trees of economic 

 importance introduced into Britain from Western North America, 

 and now to be found distributed over the country of an age and 

 in numbers sufficient to test their value for afforestation 

 purposes, none seem capable of producing a growth of timber, 

 on high elevations and moisture-holding soils, equal in volume 

 and value to that of the Sitka spruce or Menzies fir [Ficea 

 sitchensis)^ or as the tree is locally named, the Tideland spruce. 



It is indigenous to the tract of country lying between the 

 western slope of the Coast Ranges and the Pacific coast, where 

 the climate closely resembles that of the western shores of 

 Great Britain and Ireland generally, while its altitudinal range 

 seems to be governed more by its demands on moisture of soil 

 and atmosphere than by the depth or quality of soil, or by 

 temperature. Its range, occurrence, and demands on climate 

 are stated in a silvicultural study of the Sitka spruce, by Mr 

 Giffard Pinchot, chief of the United States Forest Service, to be 

 as follows : — " Sitka spruce occurs in the forests of the 

 Pacific Coast from Caspar, Mendocino, County Cal., north- 

 ward through Oregon, Washington, and Alaska to the base of 

 the Alaska Peninsula. It confines itself chiefly to the vicinity 

 of the coast, and in its entire range of over 1300 miles from 

 California to Alaska extends nowhere far inland. Where it 



