White spruce

“ I don't think they can stand it. There is a variety of white spruce that grows in the Black Hills, which I think will be decided to be a different species when botanists come to study it, that will stand our prairies. Another tree that we like is the Colorado blue spruce; it is hardy and grows excellently. About twenty-three years ago, when Professor Verner was at the head of the Forestry Department at Washington he sent me 8,000 evergreens, and I set them out. They were bull pine and the Scotch pine and Austrian pine. ”

“ Used like soft pine, but also employed as resonance wood in musical instruments and preferred for paper pulp. Spruces, like pines, form extensive forests. They are more frugal, thrive on thinner soils, and bear more shade, but usually require a more humid climate. "Black" and "White" spruce as applied by lumbermen usually refer to narrow and wide-ringed forms of black spruce (Picea nigra) .
35. Black Spruce (Picea nigra var. mariana) . Medium-sized tree, forms extensive forests in northwestern United States and in British America ”

“ In none other does it appear to change, and even then it casts not off the old—it only puts on the new in tenderer and fresher beauty! The new growth of the spruce and fir, the pale yellowish-green tips set in the dark old background, are exquisitely lovely; nor are the light green shoots of the white, yellow, and pitch pine much, less beautiful. ”

“ The foliage of the red spruce lacks the whitish tinge of color of the white spruce and the cones, which are from one inch to two inches in length, are obovate in shape—that is, the widest place is through the upper part of the cone, and from this point it gradually tapers to the tip. They seldom persist longer than the second summer. ”

“ I saw each spruce: its age, its condition, the onslaughts it had borne; the beargrass coming up in an opening; and down the trail a meadow that was yellow, white, and red with sulphur plant, mariposa, and Indian paintbrush. Bees, flies, spiders, and butterflies worked that little garden tucked among the crowding trees. Countless forms of life beneath the soil and bark, in tunnel, crevice, hole, and pocket, working unseen to sustain their lives, and somehow, when all were added up, maintaining the forest as well. ”

“ European spruce is often locally known as white deal.
Spruce trees have single, sharp-pointed, short leaves, pointing everywhere, and keeled above and below so as to appear four-sided; the cones hang down. Spruce may be distinguished from the pines, firs, and hemlocks by the fact that pine leaves are longer and in clusters, that hemlock leaves are flat, blunt, and two-ranked, and that fir cones point upward. The genus picea has twelve species, five of which are North American. The resins of the black and red spruce are used as confections. [p149] ”

“ The rate of growth in the very dense stands that are usual in that latitude is decidedly slow except where the soil and drainage conditions happen to be just right. Black spruce on semi-muskeg, a site of average quality for that species, is only four to five inches in diameter breast height at one hundred years. White spruce is rather fastidious regarding moisture conditions and only appears on fairly well-drained spots, attaining there a size of eight to twelve inches diameter within a century. Poplar in that time reaches eight to ten inches. ”

“ I was struck by this universal spiring upward of the forest evergreens. The tendency is to slender, spiring tops, while they are narrower below. Not only the spruce and fir, but even the arbor-vitae and white pine, unlike the soft, spreading second-growth, of which I saw none, all spire upwards, lifting a dense spear-head of cones to the light and air, at any rate, while their branches straggle after as they may; as Indians lift the ball over the heads of the crowd in their desperate game. ”

“ You are confronted everywhere with this meeting of the natural and indented shore of the woods, close, feathery, impenetrable, with the bays and inlets of field and pasture and meadow. The jutting portions are apt to be made more sharp and marked by the most striking part of our growth, the evergreens. There they grow, white pine and red pine, black spruce, hemlock, and balsam fir, in lovely sisterhood. Their needles shine in the sun. ”

“ He was as spruce as if he had just donned a new suit, his black hood like velvet, his chestnut of the richest, and his white of the whitest, and he sang from the top of a small pine-tree; sometimes, in the restless way of his family, scrambling over the branches, and again shifting his position to a small birch-tree. ”

“ The seeds are winged, and the wind scatters them. They germinate best on humus. In spruce forests, clumps of seedlings are often seen where logs have decayed and fallen to dust. Seedlings do not thrive on mineral soil, and for that reason red spruce makes a poor showing where fires have burned. It does not spread vigorously in old fields as white pine does. It must have forest conditions or it will do little good. For that reason it does not promise great things for the future. It grows very slowly, and land owners prefer white pine, where that species will grow. ”

“ Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. ”

“ WHITE SPRUCE (Picea canadensis) ranges from Labr. to Alaska, s. to N.E., centr. parts of Mich. and Wis., the Black Hills. w. slopes of the Rockies in Can. and Mont. Not a large or valuable tree except for paper pulp, it is the most ornamental eastern spruce. ”

“ The fir has the darkest foliage, and, together with the spruce, makes a very dense “black growth,” especially on the upper parts of the rivers. A dealer in lumber with whom I talked called the former a weed, and it is commonly regarded as fit neither for timber nor fuel. But it is more sought after as an ornamental tree than any other evergreen of these woods except the arbor-vitæ. The black spruce is much more common than the white. ”

“ The white spruce forest along the banks is most inspiring, magnificent here. Down the terraced slopes and right to the water's edge on the alluvial soil it stands in ranks. ”

“ In habit and general appearance it resembles the Douglas spruce, but it is somewhat less slender and the needles grow close together all around the branchlets and are so stiff and sharp-pointed on the younger branches that they cannot well be handled without gloves. The timber is tough, close-grained, white, and looks more like pine than any other of the spruces. It splits freely, makes excellent shingles and in general use in house-building takes the place of pine. I have seen logs of this species a hundred feet long and two feet in diameter at the upper end. ”

“ Fig. 20.—Douglas Spruce Forest.
(X.) Spruce (con.) is moderately hard and strong, and in New England is used generally for framing light buildings [Pg 42] and for rough boarding. Its color is almost pure white, and it has the valuable quality of holding nails firmly. There is little difference between the heart and the sap wood, and its texture is sometimes such that it is difficult to distinguish it from white pine. It warps and twists badly in seasoning, and on that account is not suitable for framing trusses, unless seasoned lumber is used. ”

“ Nothing but its scarcity stands in the way of its becoming an important timber tree. The best of it is a satisfactory substitute for white pine in the manufacture of doors. It grows rapidly, and the wide rings contain a high percentage of light colored springwood, though there is enough summerwood of darker color to give the dressed lumber a character. It weighs about the same as northern white pine, but is weaker. In South Carolina and Florida it is called white pine, but the name spruce is more general. It is known also as kingstree, poor pine, Walter’s pine, and lowland spruce pine. ”

“ The blue spruce well known in Eastern lawns as the "Colorado blue spruce," is a crisp-looking, handsome tree, broadly pyramidal, with rigid branches and stout horny-pointed leaves, blue-green to silvery white, exceeding an inch in length. At home on the mountains of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, it reaches a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet in height and a trunk diameter of three feet, and [Pg 251] becomes thin and ragged at maturity. The same fate overtakes the trim little lawn trees, so perfect in color and symmetry for a few years. ”

“ As an object of sight, the White Pine is free from some of the defects of the Fir and Spruce, having none of their stiffness of foliage and inflexibility of spray, that cause them to resemble artificial objects. It has the symmetry of the Fir, joined with a certain flowing grace that assimilates it to the deciduous trees. With sufficient amplitude to conceal a look of primness that often arises from symmetry, we observe a certain negligent flowing of its leafy robes that adds to its dignity a grace which is apparent to all. ”

“ This timber is principally pine and fir; there are also large quantities of splendid spruce; alder and white-oak, laurel and maple are also found. Alder grows from twenty-four to thirty inches in diameter, and is worth for cabinet-making purposes from thirty to forty dollars a thousand feet at the factory. There is a belt principally of spruce timber, a mile wide and how many miles long I can not say, heading northward from Depot Slough, a stream running into Yaquina Bay, many of the trees being eight and nine feet in diameter, and two hundred and fifty feet high. ”

“ A thing to be borne in mind is that white pine seems to reach a healthier and better development when mixed with a small proportion of other species, such as cedar, tamarack, spruce, lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, so there is no object in trying to produce an absolutely pure stand. ”

“ In some parts of the United States forestry experts can tell where they are by the local tree growth. For example, in the extreme northern districts the spruce and the balsam fir are native. As one travels farther south these give way to little Jack pine and aspen trees. Next come the stately forests of white and Norway pine. Sometimes a few slow-growing hemlock trees appear in the colder sections. If one continues his journey toward the equator he will next pass through forests of broad-leaved trees. They will include oak, maple, beech, chestnut, hickory, and sycamore. ”

“ Cones are three inches long, and usually grow near the top of the tree. It is not unusual for blue spruce trees to divide near the ground in three or four branches. In its youth, particularly in open ground, blue spruce develops a conical crown. The wood is lighter than white pine, is soft, weak, and pale brown or nearly white in color. The sapwood is hardly distinguishable from the heart. This is a valuable tree for ornamental planting; but in later years it loses its lower limbs, and becomes less desirable. ”

“ The road is an almost continuous ascent, whereby the landscape appears to widen, and every minute the shadows grow broader and darker across the vale. At last the sun drops behind the hill-top, and the lights playing on the summits of the fells deepen into purple, umber, and black, darkest where the slopes and ridges intersect. Cliffs topped with wood break through the acclivities on the left, and here and there plantations of spruce and larch impart a sense of shelter. Every step makes us feel that we are approaching a region where Nature partakes more of the stern than the gentle. ”

“ On the lower banks the timber is mostly cleared off. Upon the higher slopes grow the mountain mahogany and the scrub maple wherever there is a foot of soil. There is a fine, sturdy growth of abies. The spruce, or white pine, rises in a beautifully regular cone often 100 feet high; there are two principal varieties of fir, one with smooth light bark, and the other, which loves a higher range, and looks black as it bristles out of its snowy bed, is of a dun russet. ”

“ A little further on we crossed the Chalu-chhu, and the valley widened out into the most delightful glades and upland swards, forming rich grazing-grounds; in fact, Chalu-thang would form a perfect site for a summer sanatorium, for it is a well-wooded, gently sloping park, spreading for several miles up the vales of the Chalu-chhu and Tak-phu-chu. Growing in abundance were spruce, larch, silver fir, holly-oak, various pines and rhododendrons, interspersed with grassy slopes, while the main valley had the appearance of a gigantic avenue leading up to the snowy pyramid of Senchu-la. ”

“ We reached our camping-ground about 3 P.M., a lovely open spot in the midst of larch and spruce, with magnificent views both up and down the valley, and found our heavy baggage waiting for us. Sorting out the tents was rather a difficult task, as the coolies had thrown everything in a heap, but we soon got things into fair order, and had a roaring fire made in the middle of the camp, round which we all sat and made ourselves comfortable, although a good deal of our baggage did not arrive till midnight. ”

“ It is by far the most majestic spruce I ever beheld in any forest, and one of the largest and longest lived of the giants that flourish throughout the main pine belt, often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six or seven. Where the growth is not too close, the strong, spreading branches come more than halfway down the trunk, and these are hung with innumerable slender, swaying sprays, that are handsomely feathered with the short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. ”