PINACE^ 123 



exposed to the weather or in contact with the soil. Amongst 

 other purposes it is used for planks, boards, joists, etc., for the 

 indoor finish of houses ; for inferior kinds of joinery, sounding- 

 boards for musical instruments, carving, wood wool, boxes, paper 

 pulp, and, when treated with sulphate of copper or other preser- 

 vatives, for telegraph and telephone poles. For special purposes 

 slow-grown wood, by reason of its greater strength, is preferable 

 to that of faster growth. The wood of the silver fir is employed 

 to a far greater extent in Central Europe than in the British Isles. 

 The timber produced by trees in open positions is very coarse 

 and knotty. Strasburg turpentine, employed in varnishes, 

 artists' colours, etc., is obtained from the bark-bhsters and other 

 parts of this tree. An essential oil of turpentine, olitained by 

 distillation of the leaves and wood, has been used m medical and 

 veterinary practice for sprains and bruises. 



The silver fir is an important forest tree in France, Switzerland, 

 Germany, and Austria, whilst it is also used for forest planting in 

 Britain. It attains its maximum size in the Jura Mountains, but 

 there are excellent stands in many areas throughout its range. 

 In some of the Swiss forests it attains a height of 120-140 ft., 

 with a clean bole of 80-90 ft. of very equable girth. Good forests 

 are carried to an elevation of 4,000 or more ft. in Switzerland. 

 The rotation varies in different places from 90-140 years. For the 

 British Isles a rotation of 90-100 years is likely to be satisfactory. 

 The best timber trees are produced in dense stands that may be 

 pure or mixed. 



A. pectinata may be expected to endure a similar degree of 

 cold to the common beech. It is spring- tender, for the young 

 growths are liable to injury by late frosts. It should therefore 

 be planted on north and east aspects rather than in warmer posi- 

 tions. A decided rest in winter is necessary, and for that reason 

 it is not a good species for places where mild winters and cold 

 springs are experienced. Moist climatic conditions are desirable 

 and the best trees are grown in deep, moist, fertile soil. Loams 

 and heavy loams which approach clay are more suitable than 

 sandy loams and gravelly soils. Very dry soils and wet or sour 

 peat are quite unsuitable. At Kew, where the soU is poor and dry, 

 the atmospheric conditions on the dry side, and the air full of 

 impurities, it is impossible to grow this tree, and young plants 

 rarely survive for more than two or three years. 



Natural regeneration is good in many parts of Cent. Europe, 

 for the trees produce seed regularly every second or third year, 

 from the time they are 65-70 years old. Although much of the 

 seed is unfertile through imperfect fertihzation or insect attacks, 

 there is sufficient to ensure reproduction, and as the young trees 

 endure dense shade few seedlings are lost. On account of its 

 shade-bearing quahties it is frequently used for underplanting 



