190 SPRUCE FIR. 
tabular view of the dimensions of five of them in 1841 and in 
1851, showing their progress during ten years, after having 
attained to the age of about 120 years :— 
No. Height in | Height in | Cubic Contents | Cubic Contents | Cubic Progress 
F 1841. 1851. in 1841. in 1851. in ten years. 
Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft. Ft. Ft. 
1 95 6 100 4 198 252 54 
2 98 0 105 6 238 306 68 
3 98 0 103 3 213 240 27 
4 98 3 102 4 200 254 54 
5 102 0 106 9 187 233 46 
These trees have not increased in height during the last 
ten years, and not much in girth. 
From this statement it will be seen that the average yearly 
growth in height during the previous ten years referred to, 
was only from six to seven inches, but the average yearly 
increase of timber in each tree was about five feet. They 
are well furnished with branches and foliage far down on 
their massive trunks, each of which is from four to five feet 
in diameter at the surface of the ground, and their healthy 
appearance gives promise of a further increase in their dimen- 
sions. Their unusual vigour at this advanced age arises from 
their enjoying sufficient shelter, on a soft soil, rich in alluvial 
deposit, and from having at no period of their growth suffered 
from confinement by being pressed upon by other trees. 
In the growth of the tree in plantations, for the ordinary 
purposes of timber or for profit, it is not necessary that the 
lateral branches should be preserved; indeed, the quality of 
the timber is improved by the trees pressing so closely that 
the branches nearest the surface become enfeebled and drop 
off. Pruning should never be practised on this species, 
Under ordinary circumstances, a plantation of it is generally 
fit for being felled at the age of seventy or eighty years. 
