Fig. 125. The Influence of Hemlock on the Winter Landscape. Snow Scene
The wood is not as valuable as pine, splitting very easily and being afflicted with shakes, a defect caused by the annual layers or rings breaking away from each other when the trees are swayed by the winter storms. The bark is valuable, however, as it is rich in tannin.
63. Spruce. The tall, dark, cone-shaped evergreen trees which ornament so many of our old farm dooryards are usually some species of spruce. The spruce is sometimes mistaken for the balsam fir, which is so commonly used for Christmas trees, but they are so different that they need never be confused.
There are several varieties of spruce, including the red, black, white, and Norway, but they all bear a family resemblance.
Looking at the end of a spruce twig, it will be found that the needles completely surround it. This is not true of the fir. Then the spruce needles are sharp at the tip, while the fir needles are blunt.
This family is distinctly a northern group, being found as far north as Hudson Bay and forming dense forests, particularly on mountain sides. One may often see on the steep slopes the dividing line between the broad-leaved trees and the evergreens, the dark spruces extending clear up to the summit.
The red spruce is found as far south as Tennessee, but in that latitude it grows only at high elevations. It has cones about one and a half inches long, and its wood is light, soft, and close-grained. The wood is used for the sounding-boards of musical instruments and for the frames of buildings.
The black spruce is the northern brother of the red, and is really a Canadian tree which occasionally reaches down into the United States. It reaches the Mackenzie River on the north and covers large areas in Manitoba.
It takes its name from the dark, somber color of its foliage, which seems almost black against the snowy hillsides.