SILVICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS 27 



RED SPRUCE (Picea rubens). 



This is a distinctly eastern species of the cooler regions, 

 extending west from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, nearly 

 through New York, and in the Appalachians as far south as 

 northern Georgia. In New England it occurs throughout Maine, 

 New Hampshire, and Vermont, and on the higher hills of central 

 and western Massachusetts. 



All spruces are tolerant of shade, and it is one of the well- 

 known traits of this species that it can exist for half a century or 

 more under heavy shade without making appreciable growth, 

 and then shoot up with the vitality of youth if the shade is 

 removed. 



As might be expected from its preference for a cool climate 

 it naturally selects moist situations. Together with balsam and 

 tamarack it is one of the first trees to grow on the gradually 

 forming lands of our northern swamps. However, a lack of 

 water does not prevent its growth, for it inhabits high elevations 

 in the Green and White Mountains where it often forms pure 

 stands of excellent timber. Its root system is very shallow and 

 where grown on hardpan or on ledges, trees are liable to be 

 blown over if exposed to the wind by the removal of surrounding 

 trees. 



Under favorable circumstances, though the spruce can hardly 

 be considered a rapid-growing species, it often grows from ten 

 inches to a foot a year in height. More often in virgin forest 

 it grows very slowly, and very old specimens are common. A 

 growth of a tenth of an inch per year in diameter is a fair average 

 for virgin spruce. Four hundred and seventeen annual rings 

 have been counted on a tree less than a foot in diameter, which 

 grew on the upper slope of a Maine mountain. 



The seed years are more frequent than those of pine and it 

 begins to seed at an early age. 



Trees bear prolific crops of cones which open some two or 

 three weeks later than those of white pine, owing to the cooler 

 situations in which the spruce occurs. For a germinating bed 



