SETKA SPRUCE! USES, GROWTH, MANAGEMENT. 5 
years Maine had been the leading spruce-producing State, cutting 
chiefly red spruce ; but the pressing need for spruce aircraft lumber 
for war uses stimulated production in the Pacific Northwest to such 
an extent that in 1918 Washington took first place in the produc- 
tion of spruce with a cut of over 275,000,000 board feet, Oregon 
second with a cut of over 215,000,000, while Maine dropped to third 
place. As is shown in detail in Table 2, the cut of spruce for 1918 
comprised 6 and 8 per cent, respectively, of the total lumber pro- 
duction in Washington and Oregon, less than 2 per cent in Cali- 
fornia, and practically the entire cut in Alaska. No distinction is 
made between species of spruce, but Sitka spruce probably forms over 
95 per cent in these three States. In British Columbia the ratio was 
about the same as in Washington. The total cut of Sitka spruce in 
1918. exclusive of British Columbia, exceeded 536,000,000 board feet. 
Table 2. — Total reported cut of spruce lumber, 1915-1918. 
scies of spruce: Sitka spruce probj 
ington, Oregon, and California.] 
[No distinction is made between species of spruce: Sitka spruce probably forms over 95 per cent in Wash- 
" Ca"" 
Number 
Quantity 
Per cent 
Per cent 
of total 
Average 
value per 
1,000 feet 
f. o. b. 
mill. 
Year. 
of active 
mills re- 
of spruce 
reported 
of total 
lumber 
spruce 
cut in 
porting. 
cut. 
cut. 
United 
States. 
Mfeet. 
Washington: 
b. m. 
1915 i 
49 
196,203 
5.3 
16.4 
$14. 08 
1916 2 
65 
221, 295 
5.0 
19.6 
14.08 
1917 3 
66 
198, 271 
4.6 
20.3 
22.34 
1918 4 
60 
275, 826 
6.0 
28.1 
23.91 
Oregon: 
1915 » 
20 
65, 327 
4.3 
5.5 
13.56 
1916 2 
23 
96,245 
4.3 
8.5 
11.96 
1917 3 
26 
120,647 
4.9 
12.3 
28.28 
1918< 
35 
215, 828 
8.0 
22.0 
27. 03 
California: 
1915 i 
9,477 
13, 871 
0.8 
0.9 
1916 2 
2 

1.2 
14.44 
1917 3 
4 
20,659 
1.5 
2.1 
17.50 
1918 * 
8 
16,663 
1.3 
1.7 
20.75 
Alaska: 1918 & 
18 
28,716 
98.0 
23.00 
British Columbia: 
1915 s 
49 
"56,360 
M9,077 
13.60 
1916 6 
5.6 
14.66 
i "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1915 and Lumber in 1914," TJ. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 506, 
p. 20. 
2 "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1916," U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 673, p. 21. 
3 "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1917," U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 768, p. 21. 
* "Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1918," U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 845, p. 24. 
5 "Character and Distribution of the 1918 Lumber and Shingle Cut of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, 
by Producing and Consuming Regions," by T. J. Starker, West Coast Lumberman, Vol. 36, No. 423, p. 26, 
1919. 
6 "Forests of British Columbia." by H. N. Whitford and R. D. Craig, p. 178, 1918. 
7 No distinction is made between species of spruce; probably about 80 per cent Sitka spruce. 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WOOD. 
Sitka spruce wood is light, soft, straight-grained, tough, easily 
worked, and very strong for its weight. It is tasteless and contains 
very few resin ducts. The color of the heartwood is a pale pinkish 
brown, which blends imperceptibly into the creamy white of the 
