BLACK SPRUCE 



ing time or during the heat of the second summer. The 

 young leaves of the White Spruce are visible at flower- 

 ing time, those of the Black Spruce are not. Resin flows 

 freely from cuts and gashes and soon hardens into a thick 

 white gum, which with slight preparation is sold as chewing 

 gum. The odor of the leaves is pleasantly resinous aromatic. 



A favorite domestic drink called Spruce Beer was formerly 

 made by boiling the young branches in water and adding 

 to the decoction molasses and yeast in certain fixed propor- 

 tions, but its place has now been taken by other drinks. 



One of the chief values of the wood is in the manufacture of 

 wood pulp. The characteristics of good pulp wood are : long 

 fibre to insure strength and felting property, light color to 

 save bleaching, soft texture that it may be easily ground, 

 and freedom from foreign matter such as resin, starch, and 

 coloring material. 



The wood of all the Coniferce is rich in those long coarse 

 fibres known as tracheids and contains relatively very few 

 short cells ; consequently all are valuable as pulp woods unless 

 they are more valuable for something else. 



The Black Spruces of the Adirondacks fell victims a few 

 years ago to a blight which destroyed one-half of the mature 

 trees of the region. Expert investigation proved the cause 

 of this destruction to be the work of a small beetle. The in- 

 sects excavated a passage between the bark and the wood, 

 eating away part of both and practicall)' girdling the tree. 



NORWAY SPRUCE 



Pice a exct'lsa. 



This is a native of the northern part of Europe as its name 

 denotes and consequently is hardy in the northern states. It 

 is the most satisfactory spruce tree that can be planted in 

 northern Ohio. It is a beautiful spiry-topped tree ; the 

 branches sweep downward with a graceful curve and the 

 branchlets, after the tree reaches the height of thirty feet or 



473 



