10 BULLETIN 1060, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table 3. — Range in selling prices of different grades of spruce lumber (f. o. b. 
mill), January 1, 1919. 
Gr ade. Price per 1,000 ft. b. m. 
" B " and better, finish, S2S $35. 00 to $62. 00 
Factory select and better, S2S 35.00 to 62.00 
No. 1 shop, S2S 32. 00 to 39. 00 
Shop common, S2S 30.00 
No. 2 shop, S2S 27. 00 to 34. 00 
Box, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, S2S 26. 00 to 28. 00 
Common boards. S2S 25. 00 
Common dimension, S1S1E 17. 50 to 30. 00 
Kegarding the prices of Sitka spruce stumpage, it may be said 
that they varied as greatly in the last few years as did logging and 
milling costs. Ten years ago average stumpage was worth about 
$1.50 per thousand feet. Just prior to our entrance into the war it 
was about $2.75 per thousand feet, and in 1920 it reached $3.50. 
During 1918 stumpage values of selected trees to be cut in riving or 
logging operations ran as high as $7.50 per thousand feet. Sitka 
spruce stumpage, of course, like that of other species, varies in value 
with topography and accessibility. For this reason values greater 
than those given here, as well as values considerably less, have 
obtained. 
SIZE, AGE, AND DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 
SIZE. 
Sitka spruce, which is the largest of the spruces, grows to a size 
comparable with the maximum for Douglas fir and cedar, and larger 
than its other associates. 
When maximum sizes are considered, individual specimens of 
Sitka spruce have been found to attain surprisingly large propor- 
tions. Total heights of 296, 285, and 282 feet were recorded in the 
course of the field work for this study for individuals found in 
the vicinity of Quinault Lake and Beaver, Wash. All these treee 
were under 300 years of age. Specimens which measured over 9 feet 
in diameter at a height of 10 feet above ground were found not 
merely once or twice, but many times, in both Oregon and Washing- 
ton forests. The largest diameter recorded was of a tree which 
grew near Beaver, Wash. It measured 16 feet in diameter at 
breast height, and because of its gradual basal taper was of largt' 
volume (Pi. VI, figs. 1 and 2). Necessarily, large diameters and 
heights mean large volume, and individual trees in Oregon and 
Washington occasionally have scaled 40,000 board feet in merchant- 
able contents; but the average tree scales about 8,000 board feet. In 
Alaska single trees have scaled 24,000 board feet of merchantable 
material. 5 
•"Production of Airplane Lumber in Alaska," by W. G. Weigle, Alaska Pioneer, TOl. 1, 
No. 2, p. 4, 1918, 
