Picea 1353 



I have failed to obtain any other exact and reliable figures as to the value of a 

 crop of spruce grown in England, except on such small and isolated patches of land, 

 that they would give no fair criterion. 



As a shelter tree it makes a good edging to the roads in a plantation, and 

 can be headed down or clipped when it has grown tall enough to keep the 

 wind out. It bears clipping well and makes a good dense hedge on soils not liable 

 to drought. 



Sargent^ states that as an ornamental tree in America, it loses vigour at 

 twenty-five to thirty years old, except in the most favourable situations ; and he 

 only recommends it as a nurse for other trees, as it is very hardy and grows rapidly 

 at first. As a proof, however, of the extremely vigorous growth of the spruce 

 in America, I may say that the tallest tree in Mr. Hunnewell's Pinetum at 

 Wellesley, Mass., which I had the pleasure of visiting with Professor Sargent in 

 1904, was a Norway spruce which was planted about 1852, and was in 1894 

 80 ft. high with branches spreading over a circle 60 ft. in diameter. When I 

 saw it, it had increased little in height, but its lower branches had spread to 75 ft. 

 diameter and some of them had rooted ; flowers were just showing on May 9, and 

 cones were produced on branches close to the ground, which is rarely the case 

 in Europe. This tree is figured on Plate 340. 



According to Pinchot,^ it thrives throughout the entire north-east of the 

 United States and southward at the higher elevations ; but in the west, favourable 

 results have been attained only as far as the eastern part of the prairie region, 

 and then only in the more protected localities. He considers that it should be 

 planted on a large scale in the cut-over land in the north, where the tree will 

 provide a future supply of wood pulp, as it is in every way superior to the native 

 spruces. 



Remarkable Trees 



If I could trust the measurements which have been given me I should say that 

 the tallest spruce in this country is a tree at Rooksbury Park, Hants, the seat of 

 J. C. Gamier, Esq. It is in a densely crowded thicket of rhododendron, surrounded 

 by beech, and was said by Mr. A. Arnold to measure no less than 178 ft.; but 

 after seeing it twice I could not believe that it was over 150 ft., and, owing to its 

 position, could not measure it myself.* 



In Oates Wood at the top of Cowdray Park, near the superb silver fir figured 



1 Silva N. Avier. xii. 24, note (1898). " U.S. Forest Service, Planting Leaflet, No. 20 (1908). 



3 At my request Mr. Arnold has recently re-measured this tree with a theodolite, and informs me that though he could 

 not get a clear view of its top, he now estimates it at 149 feet. 



