138 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Photograph by courtesy of James D. Lacey & Company. 



HIGH GRADE SITKA SPRUCE IN WASHINGTON 



A selected group of which the two left-hand trees would probably be 

 chosen for felling, and the logs either taken to sawmills or riven into 

 spruce stock in the woods. 



part they are now playing in the world drama. 



Of the practical aspects of western aircraft spruce 

 production, there are many features which call for praise 

 and admiration of the men and the industry which are 

 meeting the emergency. Think of the enormous stretch 

 of Pacific Coast forests, a lumber industry and logging 

 facilities organized to serve a normal market, then sud- 

 denly our emergency demand for spruce in far greater 

 quantities than it was available to existing log roads or 

 mills. The output of spruce in October, 1917, was about 

 two million feet ; in March it promises to exceed ten 

 million. This is a record of industrial accomplishment 

 which only loggers or lumbermen can fully appreciate. 



A company in a region ordinarily produced say 5 or 

 10 per cent spruce, this being the percentage in relation 

 to the total output of all woods. Then comes the neces- 

 sity of greatly increasing this percentage, although the 

 proportion of the species remains ^unchanged. The 

 spruce needed perhaps stands over the ridge, or on a 

 remote part of the tract not reached by logging roads. 

 The solution was largely one of labor and transportation. 



Neither are easy. The labor situation has been men- 

 tioned. The transportation logging roads, and equip- 

 ment, cannot be provided in a day, the difficulties being 

 augmented by the nature of the country and shortage 

 of supplies and material. 



Again, as in the East, the strict specifications for air- 

 craft spruce mean the possible utilization of only the 

 best trees and a small percentage of the logs. The aver- 

 age for Sitka spruce is about 10 per cent, and this must 

 be watched and perhaps sorted over again to eliminate 

 the coarse-grained wood from too fast growing trees. 

 Then there is the problem of disposing of the lower 

 grades, comprising the remaining 90 per cent. It is an 

 enormous task in both detail and volume. 



As a specific illustration of the difficulties encountered 

 in maintaining an output of 10 million feet of aircraft 



Photograph by courtesy of James D. Lacey & Company. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA SPRUCE 



Spruce trees remaining on a windfall area at the north end of Vancouver 

 Island. Hemlock and stiver fir originally stood with the spruce, but 

 they have been blown down. Note the man at the foot of the spruce tree 

 in the foreground. 



