700 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



species. It ia not an important matter however. 

 The red spruce, or efinette rouge of the French Cana- 

 dian-., seems to derive the descriptive part of its name 



from the reddish-brown cast to the bark of the mature 

 tree, yet in the woods where it is common it is known 



-.imply as >pruce.hut the others 



are referred to by name. Its 



scientific name is the Latin 



equivalent of its English and 



French and is in no way re- 

 markable. The tree is not 



noted for its great size, 



although it is far from a small 



tree. Specimens exceeding 



100 feet in height are unusual 



and trunks 4 feet through are 

 likewise rare. Trees in the 



forest average 2 feet in di- 

 ameter and from 60 to 80 feet 



high. Mature red spruce has 



a rather open, wide spreading 



crown. It is composed of a 



few large, irregular branches 



which droop more or less, but 



are upturned toward their 



tips. The crown lacks the 



narrow conical aspect of white 



spruce, or the broad pyramidal 

 effect of Norway spruce. 



The red spruce has a much 

 more restricted range than the others. The Maritime 

 Provinces, Quebec, eastern Ontario and western New York 

 State mark its northern and western boundaries. It ex- 

 tends further south, however, than the others, for it fol- 

 lows the higher summits of the Alleghenies and Appa- 

 lachians clear to North Carolina, where it can be found 

 growing within a few miles of the cotton fields and the 

 vastly different flora of the southern forests. The black 

 spruce also follows the mountains southward but to a 

 lesser degree. Some botanists consider the spruce of the 

 mountains another species, giving it the name of Picea 

 australis; but the points of distinction between it and the 

 common form, if they exist 

 at all, are too microscopic 

 to interest the forester 

 greatly or the lumberman 

 in the least. 



The idea must not be 

 gotten that a solid body 

 of spruce is to be found 

 along the tops of all the 

 mountains in the Appala- 

 chian chain. It is only here 

 and there on the sum- 

 mits of the highest peaks 

 and ranges that they are 

 found. Small bodies exist 

 in the Poconos in northeast 



Pennsylvania and a few 



BARK OF RED SPRUCE 



tracts were until recently to be found in central Pennsyl- 

 vania. West Virginia contains the largest bodies of any 

 of the Appalachian States. In the eastern part of the State 

 at elevations above 2400 feet originally there was a fine 

 spruce forest covering about 1,500,000 acres. So great 



have been the ravages of fire, 

 insects, diseases and man that 

 it is doubtful if 200,000 acres 

 of this remain in virgin timber. 

 A few mountain tops in Old 

 Virginia are capped with 

 spruce forests, but no consid- 

 erable bodies occur. In North 

 Carolina, where the Appala- 

 chians reach their greatest 

 height the spruce forest makes 

 its southernmost stand. It sel- 

 dom occurs below 5000 feet. 

 The best known area is the 

 Black Mountains, the highest 

 peak of which is Mount Mit- 

 chell, also the highest point in 

 America east of the Missis- 

 sippi River. The name Black 

 Mountains was suggested by 

 the dark color due to the dense 

 masses of spruce on the sum- 

 mits. It was given to the 

 range long before it was ex- 

 plored by Doctor Mitchell who 

 lost his life and left his name on its highest peak. The 

 largest body of spruce is in the Great Smokies, the wildest 

 and most remote mountain range in eastern America. 

 Here above a belt of hardwoods, unsurpassed in the tem- 

 perate zone, there extends a long band of magnificent 

 spruce timber. Small bodies of spruce cling, like ship- 

 wrecked sailors to the masthead of a sinking vessel, to the 

 summits of a few other scattered peaks. 



Except on mountain tops or deep swamps, spruce sel- 

 dom occurs pure over large areas. Its most common 

 associates are hardwoods, beech, birch and maple being 

 particularly common. The combinations of types and 



species in the spruce region 

 are numerous and often be- 

 wildering. 



Red spruce reverses the 

 common characteristics of 

 most trees and grows faster 

 as it grows older. In youth 

 it is one of the slowest 

 growing trees we have. It 

 remains of seedling or sap- 

 ling size often for upwards 

 of half a century, growing 

 inconspicuously underneath 

 the shade of other trees. 

 Finally when they die or 

 are cut and it receives an 

 abundant supply of light, it 



AREA OF RED SPRUCE GROWTH 



