THE SITKA SPRUCE AS A TREE FOR HILL PLANTING. 9 



inches seems sufficient to meet the requirements of the tree ; 

 but on such soils as generally occur at high elevations on our 

 moorlands and mountain slopes, a rainfall similar to that of 

 Argyllshire and the west coast generally (80 to 100 inches), 

 will, I believe, be required for its best development. My own 

 experience leads me to believe that little danger is to be feared 

 from excess of moisture, provided it be not stagnant ; and also 

 that an amount which, under ordinary conditions, would prove 

 fatal to the Norway spruce, would not appreciably affect the 

 Sitka spruce. 



It is a matter of regret that, while Sitka spruce has, for a 

 period of nearly eighty years, been known and appreciated in 

 pineta and pleasure grounds, on account of its ornamental 

 value, so little has been done, in a practical way, to ascertain 

 its commercial value ; but probably, as in the case of the 

 Douglas fir, a prejudice, based on insufficient knowledge of the 

 real value of its timber, may have accounted for the lack of 

 interest shown in the tree. No doubt such specimens of timber 

 as had from time to time become available, had usually been 

 the product of specimen trees gr'^.wn purely for ornamental 

 purposes, and valued in accordance with the depth and spread 

 of their crowns ; from such trees the lowest grade of timber only 

 could possibly be produced. The fact, however, should be 

 borne in mind that silver fir, spruce, or larch, planted and 

 cultivated under similar conditions, would yield timber only 

 slightly inferior in density to that of these quicker-growing 

 exotics. Yet no one would be likely to contend that an annual 

 ring of timber, of threequarters of an inch or over in width, 

 represented a fair sample of average density of any of those 

 species. It should hardly be necessary, at this date, to point 

 out that quality of timber, at least as far as closeness of grain 

 and freedom from knots are concerned, is purely a matter of 

 control, and may be heightened or lowered in degree just as the 

 method of management in the forest is of an approved order or 

 the reverse; with coniferae generally, the more rapid the 

 growth the greater the need proportionately for high density of 

 stock. Sitka spruce responds readily to cultural management, 

 and while in isolation the trees usually carry the maximum pro- 

 portion of branch to bole, in close canopy stem-cleaning can be 

 brought about by the minimum of side shade. 



Amongst the earlier experiments in planting Sitka spruce out 



