10 BULLETIN 544, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Too much, dependence can not be placed on any of these values 
except for the purposes of general comparison, for the reason that 
through a process of adulteration of the purity of the product, so to 
speak, the true rise in value for a period of years is not shown by 
average stumpage price quotations. To illustrate: The average 
stumpage values per 1,000 feet in a certain locality might have been 
$2 twenty years ago, $3 ten years ago, and 84 to-day, while the quality 
of the cut in those years might have been 100 per cent first quality 20 
years ago, worth $2 per 1,000 feet, 67 per cent first quality 10 years 
ago, worth $4, and 40 per cent first quality to-day, worth $8, the 
differences being made up in the latter instances by cheap, low- 
grade material which 20 years ago could not have been given away. 
Thus the true rise in stumpage value, instead of being from $2 to $4, 
as indicated by the average stumpage figures, should be S2 to $8, 
based on the same class of product throughout the period. This is 
but one of many similar conditions which help to obscure the true 
rise which has taken place and is taking place not only with spruce 
but with all stumpage and which must be imderstood in making use 
of any general stumpage figures. 
RANGE AND DISTRIBUTION. 
Regarding the range and distribution of red spruce, the various 
botanical authorities are in disagreement. This condition arises 
largely from the fact that the red spruce and the closely allied black 
spruce are not perfectly distinguishable under some circumstances. 
When red spruce is segregated from the black spruce, its range is 
given as from Prince Edwards Island to the valley of the St. Law- 
rence River, southward to the coast of Massachusetts, along the 
interior hilly parts of New England and New York to the Allegheny 
Mountains, to western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and the 
higher peaks of South Carolina. When the black and red spruce are 
considered as a single species, the range extends, in addition to the 
above, from Labrador and Newfoundland to the valley of the McKen- 
zie River in latitude about 65° north and, crossing the Rocky Moun- 
tains, from the interior of Alaska to the valley of the White River 
and from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta 
through northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba to central 
Wisconsin and Michigan. The accompanying map (fig. 1) shows 
these ranges graphically as well as those for the other species of this 
genus which are indigenous to the United States. 
The red spruce occurs chiefly on well-drained uplands and moun- 
tain slopes. In the northern portion of its range it is found on the 
better-drained soils at or near sea level. Within the L'nited States 
its commercial range is rarely below 1,000 feet elevation, although 
under some conditions it may extend somewhat lower, as, for instance, 
in swamps. In these situations the red and black spruce find their 
