COMMERCIAL USES OF RED SPRUCE 



707 



suddenly increases in growth and adds to its height and 

 becomes a full-grown tree. From then on its growth is 

 regular and well sustained till old age. Native spruce 

 requires a rotation of from 80 to 100 years, and most vir- 

 gin spruce cut to-day is well over the century mark in age. 

 The spruces make desirable ornamental trees, but the 

 red spruce is 

 generally too 

 slow growing 

 for this pur- 

 po s e . The 

 most common 

 spruce seen in 

 cultivation i n 

 the eastern 

 United States 

 is the Norway 

 an importa- 

 t i o n from 

 Europe. 



It has been 

 estimated that 

 the stand of 

 the eastern 

 spruces in the 

 United States 

 is 50,000,000,- 

 000 feet, 80 per 

 cent of it being 

 in northern 

 New England 

 and northeast- 

 ern New York. 

 Although no 

 separate esti- 

 mate for the 

 red spruce is 

 available, it is 

 probable that 

 95 per cent of 

 it is of this 

 species. It is 

 peculiar that 

 the best spruce stands are found, not in the north, but in the 

 Appalachian Mountains, those in West Virginia taking the 

 palm. The average stand in Maine is about 3000 or 4000 

 feet to the acre, and the best stands seldom exceed 15,000 



MATURE SPRUCE STANDS IN THE ADIRONDACK^ 



Spruces generally grow mixed with hardwoods or other conifers, in this case with balsam fir which has formed a 

 thick under-story. The fir is a less valuable tree than the spruces but is increasing in amount because it grows 

 faster than the spruces and takes its place in the forest when the wood is cut. 



or 20,000 feet, while in West Virginia they often average 

 6000 feet and more, with maximums of 60,000. In North 

 Carolina yields are not quite so high, but still in excess of 

 those in the north. The reason seems to be that the trees 

 grow thicker on the ground and are more often found in 

 pure stands. Most of the spruce stumpage is controlled 



by pulp and 

 lumber inter- 

 ests. 



The wood 

 of the eastern 

 spruces is so 

 similar in char- 

 acter and ap- 

 pearance that 

 it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to 

 tell them apart. 

 Nor is it gen- 

 erally impor- 

 tant that they be 

 distinguished 

 from each 

 other, since 

 commercially 

 they are all 

 one. Superfi- 

 cially spruce 

 wood resem- 

 bles white pine, 

 but there is no 

 distinction be- 

 tween heart 

 and sapwood 

 and the color is 

 apt to be even 

 paler and more 

 whitish. It 

 never possesses 

 the light red- 

 dish or rose 

 colored cast 

 common to the 

 latter. Spruce wood has no desirable figure, being one 

 of the plainest and most homogeneous of our woods. 

 Consequently it has no place as a cabinet or orna- 

 mental wood. 



I 



Commercial Uses of Red Spruce 



SPRUCE was little used till the supply of pine began 

 to decrease, when its better grades came into the 

 market as a substitute for the pine. Although it 

 now has an assured place of its own as a lumber wood 

 and even has substitutes, chiefly balsam fir, it has never 

 been pre-eminently noted as a lumber producer not be- 



cause of any lack of value and adaptability, but because 

 it is of more value for something else wood pulp, sev- 

 enty per cent of the cut being used for this purpose. 

 The spruces are the leading pulpwoods of the world 

 and red spruce the leading pulpwood of the United 

 States. About 70 per cent of the pulpwood used in 



