sitka spruce: uses, growth, management. 5 



years Maine had been the leading spruce-producing State, cutting 

 chiefly red spruce ; but the pressing need for spruce aircraft lumber 

 for war uses stimulated production in the Pacific Northwest to such 

 an extent that in 1918 Washington took first place in the produc- 

 tion of spruce with a cut of over 275,000,000 board feet, Oregon 

 second with a cut of over 215,000,000, while Maine dropped to third 

 place. As is shown in detail in Table 2, the cut of spruce for 1918 

 comprised 6 and 8 per cent, respectively, of the total lumber pro- 

 duction in Washington and Oregon, less than 2 per cent in Cali- 

 fornia, and practically the entire cut in Alaska. No distinction is 

 made between species of spruce, but Sitka spruce probably forms over 

 95 per cent in these three States. In British Columbia the ratio was 

 about the same as in Washington. The total cut of Sitka spruce in 

 1918, exclusive of British Columbia, exceeded 536,000,000 board feet. 



Table 2. — Total reported cut of spruce lumber, 1915-1918. 



[No distinction is made between species of spruce: Sitka spruce probably forms over 95 per cent in Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, and California.] 



Year. 



Number 

 of active 

 mills re- 

 porting. 



Quantity 



of spruce 



reported 



cut. 



Per cent 



of total 



lumber 



cut. 



Per cent 

 of total 

 spruce 

 cut in 

 United 

 States. 



Average 



value per 



1,000 feet 



f. o. b. 



mill. 



Washington: 



1915 l 



49 

 65 

 66 

 60 



20 

 23 

 26 

 35 



Mfeet. 

 b. m. 

 196,203 

 221, 295 

 198, 271 

 275, 826 



65, 327 



5.3 

 5.0 

 4.6 

 6.0 



4.3 



16.4 

 19.6 

 20.3 

 28.1 



5.5 



8.5 



12.3 



22.0 



$14. 08 



1916 2 



14.08 



1917 3 



22.34 



1918 * 



23.91 



Oregon: 



1915 > 



13.56 



1916 2 



96, 245 4. 3 



11.96 



1917 3 



1918 * 



California: 



1915' 



120,647 

 215, 828 



9,477 

 13,871 

 20,659 

 16,663 

 28,716 



7 56 360 



4.9 

 8.0 



0.8 

 0.9 

 1.5 

 1.3 

 98.0 



28.28 

 27.03 



1916 2 



2 



4 

 8 

 18 



49 



1.2 



2.1 

 1.7 



14.44 



1917 > 



17.50 



1918 < 



20.75 



Alaska: 1918 » 



23.00 



British Columbia: 



1915 • 





13. 60* 



1916 6 



48 '49 077 



5.6 





14.66 













» "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1915 and Lumber in 1914," TJ. S. Dept.- Agr. Bui. 506, 

 p. 20. 



2 " Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1916," U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 673, p. 21. 



» " Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1917," TJ. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 768, p. 21. 



i "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1918," TJ. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 845, p. 24. 



Char&ctel and Distribution of the 1918 Lumber and Shingle Cut of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, 

 by Producing and Consuming Regions," by T. J. Starker, West Coast Lumberman, Vol. 36, No. 423, p. 26, 

 1919 



• "Fore t of liritish Columbia," by H. N. Whitford and It. D. Craig, p. 178, 1918. 



* No distinction la made between species of spruce; probably about 80 per cent Sitka spruce. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WOOD. 



Sitka spruce wood is light, soft, straight-grained, tough, easily 



worked, and very strong for its weight. If is tasteless and contains 

 very few resin ducts. The color of the heartwood is a pale pinkish 

 brown, which Mends imperceptibly into the creamy while of the 



