'35^ The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



enough to kill the branches, have attained a considerable size, or where a spruce 

 plantation has been a really profitable investment. 



My own experience is, that land where spruce may be well grown is fit to 

 produce a much more valuable timber, and that on ordinary land it will starve to 

 death before it will clean itself from branches. The late Mr. Philip Baylis, Deputy- 

 Surveyor of Dean Forest, told me that spruces there, 50 to 60 ft. high, and so 

 thickly planted that no vegetation would exist under them, still retained the dead 

 branches to within 5 or 6 ft. from the ground ; and I think that this will apply to 

 most places in England and Scotland. 



When the tree is of large size it usually becomes rotten at the heart near the 

 ground ; and the top is often broken by the wind. Though the timber may be 

 worth 4d. to 6d. per cubic foot for rough boarding or packing-cases, or for temporary 

 sleepers and pit props in collieries or railways under construction, yet in quantity 

 it is the most unsaleable wood we have. When, as often happens, large quantities 

 are blown down by a heavy gale, I have known cases where no one would go to 

 the expense of cutting up and removing the trees if they had them for nothing, and 

 the proprietor has had considerable expense in doing so without any return 

 whatever. When blown down, the shallow spreading roots tear up the ground for 

 some distance round the tree and are very costly to get rid of, or if left leave the 

 ground in a bad state for re-planting. 



Where, however, the soil and climate allow the spruce to be crowded closely 

 enough to clean itself, before it becomes rotten at heart or is blown down, spruce 

 timber may be used for estate building purposes, if not with actual economy, yet in 

 many cases more advantageously than by selling it. Sixpence per foot is something 

 like the average price, though 3d. to 4d. often has to be accepted. 



On shallow and dry soils the spruce often begins to decay at the heart for some 

 feet from the ground at the age of fifty to seventy years, and on such soils should 

 not be planted at all. Its spreading roots, which are extremely tough and elastic, 

 are used in Scandinavia for the knees of boats, though rarely so utilised in 

 England. The tough and durable branches made into a wattled fence will last 

 for a long period, and are the common farm fence in many parts of Norway and in 

 the Alps. 



When facilities exist for creosoting, spruce may be used for fencing and other 

 outside work, such as sheds and outbuildings; but unless treated with some 

 preservative it soon decays when exposed to wet and dry. 



The spruce trees which produce the bois de resonance, used for sounding- 

 boards in musical instruments, grow at high elevations in the Alps, the Jura, and 

 in the Bohemian and Bavarian forests. These are very old trees, the growth of 

 which has been extremely slow and very uniform, the annual rings not exceeding 

 ^ in., and containing only a slight amount of autumn wood. These trees are 

 usually covered with lichens, and their selected timber sells at very high prices, as 

 much as 9s. to 1 2s. per cubic foot. 



Burgundy pitch is a resinous product of the spruce, well known under the 

 name oi Burgony Pitch and Pix Burgundica as long ago as 1640. It was formerly 



