74 THE AGE FOR PROFITABLY 



Spruce (Abies exeelsa). — The spruce fir is a very useful tree, 

 its wood being largely used in the erection of agricultural buildings. 

 Byres fitted up "with spruce are admitted to be more durable than 

 those fitted up -with planted Scotch fir, and not inferior to those 

 ■with natural grown pine. It is not affected by the cattle breath, 

 nor liable to the attack of moths or beetles. It is also used for 

 mining-poles and other pit wood, and for railway sleepers. It 

 likes good moist soils, which may be considered too damp for other 

 timber, willows and poplars excepted, provided there is no stag- 

 nant water near its roots. "When this is the case, even on good 

 soil, the tree dies prematurely. The most profitable time to fell 

 this tree is when about sixty years of age ; if, however, the soil is 

 dry and hard, the tree will be ready for cutting when about forty 

 or fifty years old. On deep moss it requires to stand longer — 

 say from ninety to one hundred years. I felled a wood of spruce 

 at 125 years. It grew on boggy moss, from 3 to 9 feet deep, 

 resting on a bed of gravel mixed with blue clay and sand. On 

 examining this wood, I found that taking all the crop, it averaged 

 only 4 inches in diameter during the first twenty-five years of 

 its growth. Those trees on the shallow parts of the moss grew 

 double this diameter in the same time. The slowness of growth 

 can only be accounted for by the want of inorganic matter in the 

 soil. After the decomposition of the leaves of the trees and other 

 vegetable matter which supplied the soil to a certain extent with 

 inorganic and healthy humus, they grew rapidly. From seventy 

 years of age to seventy -five they made 3 inches, when they 

 diminished till about one hundred, after which they seemed to add 

 little to their timber. A short distance from tins wood was an- 

 other spruce wood planted on a rather dry soil, on a hard gravelly 

 bottom. It was only fifty years old, and most of the trees were 

 decayed at the heart. 



Silver Fir (Picea pectinata). — Till twenty years ago the silver fir 

 was planted more for ornament than for its timber. It is now 

 largely cultivated, and will be used for fitting and roofing farm 

 buildings, for which it is well adapted, especially if grown in good 

 soil, and in cold but sheltered situations. It grows rapidly after 

 the plants are well established, and thrives best in deep, damp, 

 loamy soils. It is not, however, particular with regard to soil, 

 provided the situation is not veiy exposed. Seventy-five years of 

 age may be the average time to fell the silver fir with profit. 



It may be stated that wood, like most other crops, is sooner 



