ADIRONDACK BLACK SPRUCE. 55 



have been cut from its trunk, the diameter of the last or top log at 

 its small end will be from 10 to 12 inches, but the limbs above this 

 point will be so thick and large that the fifth log would not be 

 over five or six inches at the top, and would not be accepted by 

 the lumbermen. A tree of the same species and size growing in 

 a clump will yield five logs, because the shaft does not diminish 

 in size so fast owing to the lighter growth of limbs that form its 

 top. While the largest spruces are found scattered among the 

 hardwoods, the tallest ones of like diameters are found growing 

 in the spruce clumps. 



A coarse, gravelly soil, with a southern or western slope, 

 seems most favorable for the best development of this species. 

 Before the axemen came into this locality there was an ample 

 growth of young spruces or nurslings thickly scattered through- 

 out the timber ; but where the spruce grew thickly, the felling 

 of trees scarred and broke down most of the nurslings. Where 

 the spruce was scattered through the hardwoods the young trees 

 did not suffer so much from the careless felling of the axemen. 



The spruce blight of twenty years ago did not make its appear- 

 ance in Tovvnship 20, on which the first 700 trees examined were 

 growing. In fact, this locality is remarkable for its exemption 

 from injury in that respect. 



There are but few balsams (Abies balsamea) growing among 

 the spruces which furnished the specimens examined by the 

 foresters, although many trees of this species are growing 

 along the edges or shores of neighboring swamps and ponds. 

 The balsam in this vicinity is small, ranging from three to 

 seven inches in diameter near the ground. It is very scarce, 

 however, in the vicinity of this spruce growth, there being many 

 acres on which no balsam is found ; neither was there any 

 cedar. There are a few tamaracks (Larix Americana) on these 

 lots, but they are all dead, having succumbed to the attacks of 

 the sawfly (Nematus Erichsonii) which within a few years has 

 destroyed all the tamarack in the Adirondacks. But little white 

 pine was found among the spruce where these measurements 

 were taken. On the north shore of East Pine Pond, there was a 

 piece of timber composed almost wholly of that species, nice, 

 thrifty, sound timber of large size. The owner, Mr. Snell, said 



