228 



BULLETIN 193. 



TRA.METES ABIETIS ON THE RED SPRUCE. 



An interesting example of a red spruce (Picea rubra) was 

 examined during September, 1898 in the Adirondack mountains. 

 This was near Nehasena, Herkimer Co., on the tract owned by 

 Dr. Seward Webb. Through the courtesy of Prof. C. S Graves, 

 who then had the supervision of the forestry operations on this 

 tract, I had the privilege of following the lumberman for two 

 days to inspect trees, or portions of trees, which were discarded 

 after they had been felled. 



In this particular case the entire tree had been discarded, 

 although two logs had been 

 cut from the trunk. On 

 approaching the tree I first 

 came upon the stump, and 

 searched here for some evi- 

 dence of the reason for reject- 

 ing the timber. Near the 

 periphery of the stump, in 

 the older sap wood near its 

 junction with the heart wood 

 was a crescent shaped area in 

 cross section about 3 cm. broad 

 and 15 cm. long. This was 

 distinctly marked off from the 

 surrounding portion by the 

 coarser fractures of the 

 wood by the cross cut saw used 

 in felling the tree. This indicated that the wood was here 

 slightly l< dozed." The remainder of the stump was sound. 

 This small area showing such a slight alteration in the wood 

 probably would not have been considered objectionable. 



On examining the cut made for the first log, 16 feet above, 

 the entire heart proved to be badly decayed. A large part of 

 the sap wood was also invaded, and the cambium was being 

 encroached upon. There remained only a thick shell of living 

 and unaffected tissue underneath the bark. The heart wood 

 was so soft that the fracture from the saw teeth was irregular, 

 roughly cut and partially ' ' ironed ' ' down by friction from the 



87.- 



-Pockets of decayed tissue in 

 limb of red spruce. 



