AMERICAN FOREST TREES 129 



many places in boat building, notably as spars and yards; and for 

 window and door frames. 



The makers of piano frames employ red spruce for certain parts; 

 but as material for musical instruments its most important use is as 

 sounding boards. All the commercial spruces are so used. Wood for 

 this purpose must be free from defects of all kinds, and of straight and 

 even grain. The sounding board's value lies in its ability to vibrate in 

 unison with the strings of the instrument. Spruce has no superior for 

 that place. 



Red spruce bears abundance of seeds, the best on the highest 

 branches. The seeds are winged, and the wind scatters them. They 

 germinate best on humus. In spruce forests, clumps of seedlings are 

 often seen where logs have decayed and fallen to dust. Seedlings do not 

 thrive on mineral soil, and for that reason red spruce makes a poor 

 showing where fires have burned. It does not spread vigorously in old 

 fields as white pine does. It must have forest conditions or it will do 

 little good. For that reason it does not promise great things for the 

 future. It grows very slowly, and land owners prefer white pine, where 

 that species will grow. If spruce is to be planted, most persons prefer 

 Norway spruce (Picea excelsd) of Europe. It grows faster than native 

 spruces. It is the spruce usually seen in door yards and parks. 



BLACK SPRUCE (Picea mariana) grows much farther north than red spruce, but 

 the two species mingle in a region of 100,000 square miles or more northward of 

 Pennsylvania and in New England and southern and eastern Canada. Black spruce 

 grows from Labrador to the valley of the Mackenzie river, almost to the arctic circle. 

 It is found as far south as the Lake States where it constitutes the principal spruce of 

 commerce. In some of the swamps of northern Minnesota and in the neighboring 

 parts of Canada it is little more than a shrub, and trees three or four feet high bear 

 cones. On better land in that region the tree is large enough for sawlogs. It passes 

 under several names, among which are double spruce, blue spruce, white spruce, and 

 water spruce. The common name black spruce probably refers to the general appear- 

 ance of the crown. The small cones (the smallest of the spruces) adhere to the 

 branches many years, and give a ragged, black appearance to the tree when seen from 

 a distance. The wood is as white as other spruces. Trees vary greatly in size. The 

 best are 100 feet high and two and a half feet in diameter; but the average size is 

 about thirty feet high and twelve inches in diameter. That size is not attractive to 

 lumbermen; but cutters of pulpwood find it valuable and convenient, and much of it 

 is manufactured into paper. The wood weighs 28.57 pounds per cubic foot, and is 

 moderately strong, and high in elasticity. It is pale yellow-white with thin sapwood. 

 In Manitoba, lumber is sawed from black spruce, and it is cut also in the Lake States, 

 but it is preferred for pulp. It gives excellent service as canoe paddles. Spruce 

 chewing gum is made of resinous exudations from this tree, and is an article of con- 

 siderable importance. Spruce beer is another by-product which has long been manu- 

 factured in New England and the eastern Canadian provinces. It was made in New- 

 foundland three hundred years ago and has been bought and sold in the markets of 

 that region ever since. Fishing vessels carry supplies of the beverage on long voyages 



