521. The Norway spruce (A. e. communis), which is better known in this country as White Deal, is a native of the mountainous districts in various parts of Europe and the north of Asia. It is the tallest and straightest of our European firs, usually growing to a height of 80 or 100 feet, but the trunk is seldom so thick in proportion to the height as in other species; trees of from 2 to 3 feet in diameter at the lower end are however often to be met with. The forests of Norway produce the tree abundantly.

The spruce fir is largely imported into this country in the form of spars and deals; the best deals are those from Christiana, which, according to Von Buch, are esteemed not so much for the superior quality of the tree as regularity in the thickness of the deals. The trees are usually cut into three lengths generally about 12 feet each, and are afterwards cut into deals and planks by saw-mills, each length yielding three deals or planks usually 3 inches thick and 9 inches wide. A tree requires seventy to eighty years' growth before it arrives at perfection; but it has this advantage over other trees, that it is equally durable at whatever age it may be cut.

* ' On Naval Timber,' p. 70.

† Loudon, ' Ency. of Trees and Plants,' p. 964.

White deals are also imported from Friedrichstadt, Dron-theim, and other ports in Norway, and from Gottenburg, Riga, and other places in the Baltic. At Christiana, Mr. Coxe states, "that each saw-mill is restricted from cutting more than a certain quantity of deals; at that port there are 136 saw-mills, and the quantity permitted to be cut amounts to twenty million standard deals."

White deal unites well with glue and is very durable in a dry state, but is inferior to the Northern pine, and being often knotty is not proportionally strong for horizontal bearings. The deals are much in demand for internal joiners' work, lining furniture which is to be covered with veneers of more expensive wood, and packing-cases.

The wood being fine-grained takes a high polish and does well for gilding on. Christiana white deals and battens are considered the best for panelling and for the upper floors of houses; they are both light and mellow; those from Friedrichstadt have small black knots. The lowland Norway white deals warp and split in drying; both good and bad qualities are sent from Dram. Gottenburg white deals are stringy and are mostly used for packing-cases. Narva in Russia supplies those next best to Norway, and Riga follows third in quality. The Petersburgh white deals shrink and swell with the weather even after being painted.

The colour of spruce fir, or white deal, is yellowish, or brownish white; the hard part of the annual rings is of a darker shade of the same colour. The wood has often a silky lustre, especially in the American and British grown kinds. Each annual ring consists of two parts, the one hard and the other softer. The knots are generally very hard. The clean and straight-grained varieties are often tough but not very difficult to work, and they stand extremely well when properly seasoned. The sap-wood of the white deal is not discernible from the heart-wood.

One of the principal uses to which the spruce fir is applied is for scaffold poles, ladders, spars, and masts to small vessels, for which purposes the greater proportion of the timber imported from Norway is in the form of entire trunks, often with the bark on, from 30 to 60 feet in length, and not more than 6 or 8 inches in diameter at the thickest end.

The wood of the spruce fir is light, elastic, and varying in durability according to the soil on which it is grown; it is much less resinous than the wood of the P. sylvestris. According to Hartig it weighs 64 lbs. 11 oz. per cubic foot when green, 49 lbs. 5 oz. when half dry, and 35 lbs. 2 oz. when quite dry. According to the author's observations, white deals shrink about one-seventieth part, on becoming perfectly dry, from the state they are usually purchased at the timber yards, and what are called dry deals will shrink about one-ninetieth part.

It is from the Norway spruce that the Burgundy pitch of commerce is obtained. The tree thrives well in some parts of Britain, and produces good timber, but little inferior to the foreign; it is somewhat softer and the knots are harder, which renders it difficult to work.

Representing the strength, stiffness, and toughness of oak each by 100.