SITKA SPRUCE TREE AT FONTHILL ABBEY. 



69 



producing clean timber, apart from the requirements of these 

 species as to root-room. The very fast rate of growth tends to 

 produce a coarse timber. 



"The following particulars of comparative timber production 

 for trees growing about 50 or 60 yards from the sample Sitka 

 spruce are given in a report by Mr Hugh Garrett, head 

 forester at Fonthill Abbey : — 



" ' The cubic contents are based on total height of trees. 

 These trees are standing at distances of 23 to 24 feet apart.' 



" The Sitka spruce of Western North America produces a 

 very different class of timber to that of the home-grown sample 

 under examination. It is slower-grown and therefore more 

 compact and easier to work up. The annual rings, being 

 narrow, have a greater proportion of the denser autumn wood, 

 with a corresponding increase in specific gravity and strength 

 of the timber. In colour, the timber is a much deeper rose- 

 colour than that of the English sample.^ 



" In ten samples taken at random from the timber of British 

 Columbian Sitka spruce, the average number of annual rings 

 to the inch radius was 47, 8, 12, 20*5, i7"5, 7'8, 14, 10, 6 and 

 15 respectively, while the approximate proportion of spring- 

 wood to autumn-wood in three samples was as follows : — 



^ In all trees, including conifers, the rate of growth and the technical 

 qualities of the timber vary according to whether the tree is growing within 

 or outside its optimum conditions. Among European conifers the same 

 laws operate as with this Western American species, and we must still seek 

 to find in Great Britain the soil, climate and silvicultural treatment which 

 will most nearly approximate to the optimum conditions for slower growth 

 combined with greater strength, so that the Sitka spruce may yield the 

 best results.. — Hon. Ed. 



