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 Cozfere 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 asmall beetle. The in- 
sects excavated a passage between the bark and the wood, 
eating away part of both and practically girdling the tree. 
NORWAY SPRUCE 
Picea excélsa, 
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 
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