dark with age, and falling from the branches when the scales open. The seeds are dark brown, and winged. Formerly spruce was little thought of for lumber and manufacturing purposes in this country, though some use was made of it from the earliest settlements in the regions where it grew. White pine could generally be had where spruce was abundant, and the former wood was preferred. As pine became scarce, spruce was worked in for a number of purposes. The tree’s form is all that a sawmill man could desire. The trunk has more knots than white pine, for the reason that limbs are a longer time in dying and in dropping off; but knots are small and generally sound. By careful culling, a moderate amount of clear lumber may be obtained. The wood is light, soft, narrow-ringed, strong in proportion to its weight, elastic, and its color is pale with a slight tinge of red, the sapwood whiter and usually about two inches thick. The contrast between heart and sapwood is not strong. The medullary rays are numerous, but small and obscure. The summerwood is thin and not conspicuous. It is the wood’s red tinge which gives the tree its commercial name. It is believed that the yearly cut of red spruce in the United States for lumber is about 500,000,000 feet, one-half of which comes from West Virginia and southward, where this species reaches its highest development; and the pulpwood cut in the same region is about one-tenth as much in quantity. The long fiber and white color of spruce make it one of the most satisfactory woods for pulp in this country. Red spruce is only one of several species of spruce which contribute to the supply. The total output of spruce pulpwood in the United States yearly is equivalent to about 1,000,000,000 feet of lumber. Red spruce lumber has a long list of uses. Much flooring is made of it, and it wears well, but not as well as hard pine from the South. It is more used for shipping boxes in the northeastern part of the United States than any other wood, except white pine. Its good stenciling qualities recommend it. Manufacturers of sash, doors, and blinds find it excellent material, combining lightness, strength, and small tendency to warp, shrink, or swell. Coopers make buckets, tubs, kegs, and churns of it; manufacturers of refrigerators use it for doors and frames; and makers of furniture use it for many interior parts of bureaus, tables, and sideboards. Textile mills use spruce clothboards as center pieces round which to wind fabrics; and a further use in mills is for bobbins. It has many places in boat building, notably as spars and yards; and for window and door frames.