BRITISH FOREST TKKKS 87 



quent density of its crown, give indication of the large capacity 

 with which the spruce is endowed as regards bearing shade ; but 

 the extent to which the demand for some measure of enjoy 

 ment of light exists, is mainly dependent on how far any par- 

 ticular locality varies from the normal situations suitable to it. 

 Where these various climatic changes are distinctly discern- 

 ible, the demand for light becomes greater, and the capacity 

 for bearing shade smaller. Where soils are wanting in 

 moisture, young spruce cannot thrive under standards 

 which intercept and partially retain the atmospheric precipi 

 tations. Excess of light on the other hand stimulates to 

 increased assimilation of sap and too rapid growth in the 

 earlier stages, which in consequence seriously affects Ine- 

 quality of the timber produced. In its true home, as, for 

 example, on the fresh loamy soil of the Bavarian plateau, it 

 frequently has to content itself for the first fifteen to twenty 

 years of its existence with only a moderate supply of light 

 under scattered standard parent trees, before being gradually 

 admitted to the full enjoyment of unrestricted light and 

 sunshine and the opportunity of normal development. 



Attainment of Maturity and Reproductive Capacity. 

 Spruce is generally grown with a rotation of seventy to 

 eighty years for ordinary timber, or one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty years for the production of larger assort- 

 ments, but local market considerations must determine when 

 the fall can most advantageously take place ; higher periods 

 of rotation are only advisable where the quality of the soil 

 is above the average. Good money returns on the capital re- 

 presented point decidedly towards the growth of spruce (and 

 Douglas Fir) as being one of the most remunerative and pro- 

 fitable ways of utilising forest soils of about average quality. 



Good^seed years are less frequent with the spruce than 

 the Scots pine, but are generally reckoning from thi 

 fiftieth to sixtieth year more productive when they occur : 



