TREES, SHRUBS, AND FORESTS 



375 



Seeding with spruce seeds may also be done artificially by 

 scattering seeds on soil denuded of forest trees or by sowing the 

 seeds in prepared seed beds (Figs. 230 and 231). In this case 

 the seedlings, when they have reached the desired age, must be 

 transplanted to the forest area where the new forest is to be 

 grown. This method 

 is, on the whole, the 

 best and will prob- 

 ably be more largely 

 employed in the future 

 than in the past by 

 the state and national 

 governments. Valu- 

 able species for this 

 purpose are the white 

 spruce (Picea canaden- 

 sis) and the Norway 

 spruce (Picea abies), 

 while the red spruce 

 (Picea rubra) is more 

 difficult to manage on 

 account of its slow 

 growth in early life. 



Commercial impor- 

 tance. The wood of 

 the spruce, like that 

 of the pines and of 

 the other cone-bearing 

 trees, belongs to the 

 class called softwood, 

 to distinguish it from that of the broad-leaved hardwood trees 

 like the oak, maple, hickory, and poplar. The term is a purely 

 conventional one, since many kinds of soft woods are harder 

 and more durable than some of the so-called hard woods, like 

 poplar, basswood, and willow. The real characteristic of spruce 

 and other coniferous woods which gives them their value and 

 distinguishes them from the wood of broad-leaved species is the 



FIG. 228. Reproduction of spruce (second growth) 

 in New Hampshire 



Photograph hy the United States Forest Service 



