Forestry
White Spruce. {Picea canadensis) Evergreen; 60 to 70 or even 150 feet high. Leaves ^ to | inch long; cones ij to 2 inches long, are at the tips of the branches and deciduous; the twigs smooth. Wood white, light, soft, weak, straight-grained, not durable; a cubic foot weighs 25 lbs. Its roots afford the wattap or cordage for canoe-building and camp use generally. Spruce roots to be used as "wattap" for lacing a canoe, making birch- bark vessels or woven baskets, may be dug up at any time and kept till needed. An hour before using, soak in hot water till quite soft. They should be cleared of the bark and scrubbed smooth. Beautiful and strong baskets may be made of this material. It may be colored by soaking in dyes made as follows: Red by squeezing the juice out of berries, especially hlitum or squaw-berries. Dull red by soaking in strong tea made from the pink middle bark of hemlock. Black can be boiled out of smooth red sumac or out of butternut bark.
