In comparison with Scots pine, differences in the quality of Norway spruce timber do not affect the price very much. The increased spacing practised in the Swedish forestry during the past three decades gives only a moderately reduced saw timber quality with respect to knottiness. The resulting wider annual rings will, however, result in a lower strength. Although stress- grading is practiced at several Swedish sawmills, no generally accepted price-lists for stress-graded structural timber are available. There are also quality differences between various provenances, although not very strongly pronounced. Generally, it seems to be a safe choice to use a provenance which is not damaged by frost and other strains. When planting on abandoned farmland, stem cracks sometimes emerge as a problem. They seem to be promoted by rapid diameter growth, which means that larger spacing increases the risk for cracking. But is is also shown that some genetical materials, provenances and clones, crack more than others, although they have the same diameter growth rate. The clonal differences are especially pronounced. The cracking seems to be triggered by drought. Conclusions are that abandoned farmland in southern Sweden (south of 59-60 N) should not be planted with larger spacing than 1.5 m. Provenances from Belorussia and northern Poland should be preferred, while Slovakian and Romanian provenances should be avoided. Finnish provenances can be used on especially risk sites. The tendency of cracking requires special emphasis in clonal forestry. It should be underlined that the sawmill industry must introduce a more pronounced price differentiation between various qualities of saw-logs, in order to give the forest owner an incentive for producing timber of adequate quality for the final use.
