10 BULLETIN 1060, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Table 3. — Range in selUng prices of different grades of spruce lumber (f. o. 6. 



mill), January 1, 1919. 

 Grade. Price per 1,000 ft. b. m, 



" B " and better, finish, S2S $35. 00 to $62. 00 



Factory select and better, S2S 35. 00 to 62. 00 



No. 1 shop, S2S 32. 00 to 39. 00 



Shop common, S2S 30. 00 



No. 2 shop, S2S 27. 00 to 34. 00 



Box, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, S2S 26. 00 to 28. 00 



Common boards, S2S 25. 00 



Common dimension, S1S1E •. 17. 50 to 30. 00 



Regarding the prices of Sitka spruce stumpage, it may be said 

 that they varied as greatly in the last few years as did logging and 

 milling costs. Ten years ago average stumpage was worth about 

 $1.50 per thousand feet. Just prior to our entrance into the war it 

 was about $2.75 per thousand feet, and in 1920 it reached $3.50. 

 During 1918 stumpage values of selected trees to be cut in riving or 

 logging operations ran as high as $7.50 per thousand feet. Sitka 

 spruce stumpage, of course, like that of other species, varies in value 

 with topography and accessibility. For this reason values greater 

 than those given here, as well as values considerably less, have 

 obtained. 



SIZE, AGE, AND DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



SIZE. 



Sitka spruce, which is the largest of the spruces, grows to a size 

 comparable with the maximum for Douglas fir and cedar, and larger 

 than its other associates. 



When maximum sizes are considered, individual specimens of 

 Sitka spruce have been found to attain surprisingly large propor- 

 tions. Total heights of 296, 285, and 282 feet were recorded in the 

 course of the field work for this study for individuals found in 

 the vicinity of Quinault Lake and Beaver, Wash. All these trees 

 were under 300 years of age. Specimens which measured over 9 feet 

 in diameter at a height of 10 feet above ground were found not 

 merely once or twice, but many times, in both Oregon and Washing- 

 ton forests. The largest diameter recorded was of a tree which 

 grew near Beaver, Wash. It measured 16 feet in diameter at 

 breast height, and because of its gradual basal taper was of large 

 volume (Pi. VI, figs. 1 and 2). Necessarily, large diameters and 

 heights mean large volume, and individual trees in Oregon and 

 Washington occasionally have scaled 40,000 board feet in merchant- 

 able contents; but the average tree scales about 8,000 board feet. In 

 Alaska single trees have scaled 24,000 board feet of merchantable 

 material. 5 



* " Production of Airplane Lumber in Alaska," by W. G. Weigle, Alaska Pioneer, rol. 1, 

 No. 2, p. 4, 1918, 



