There is substantial interest in the improvement of wood properties through genetic selection or a change in silviculture prescription. Tree breeding purpose requires measurement of a large number of samples. However, traditional methods of assessing wood properties are both time consuming and destructive, limiting the numbers of samples that can be processed, so new method would be needed to find. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is an advanced spectroscopic tool for nondestructive evaluation of wood and it can quickly, accurately estimate the properties of increment core, solid wood or wood meal. The present paper reviews the advances in the research on the wood chemistry properties and anatomical properties using NIR.