DCHP-1 Online
spruce barrens Maritimes 
a tract of peat moss or muskeg.
See also: barren(s) (def. 1b)
- 1849 [We] saw some good land and some spruce barrens or swamps. I wondered . . . what end these spongy plains could answer, producing neither trees nor grass, but only wet moss on a sandy bottom. . . .
- 1925 [I wonder] who is sleeping in my old room there, and if any one is loving the little birches and playing with the Wind Woman in the spruce barrens. . . .
- 1849 [We] saw some good land and some spruce barrens or swamps. I wondered . . . what end these spongy plains could answer, producing neither trees nor grass, but only wet moss on a sandy bottom. . . .