THE FORESTRY EXHIBITION AT DERBY. 95 
been thinned too early. The commercial value of the crop 
was therefore very much depreciated. Contrasted with this 
there was another section of a stem showing the advantages 
of deferred thinning, and the following is a copy of the descrip- 
tion which accompanied it :—‘“‘ Section of spruce tree taken from 
a portion of a 45 year old pure wood, now containing 632 trees 
to the acre, with cubic contents (true measure) of 6000 feet. 
Section taken 1o feet from base. Total height of tree, 53 feet. 
Cubic contents, 1o feet. The trees were originally planted at 
3 feet apart, and only dead and very heavily suppressed trees 
have been cut out. This shows the advantage of deferred 
thinning, as the increment amounts to 1333 cubic feet per acre 
per annum. The average increment of the whole wood (about 
Ioo acres, on moorland peaty soil) is over too cubic feet per 
acre per annum. It is therefore a very valuable crop for 
estate purposes.” 
There were other exhibits of a varied and interesting nature, 
some of the principal being a collection of British timbers from 
the Earl Egerton of Tatton, Tatton Park, Cheshire, and 
specimens of home-grown commercial woods and _ similar 
products of the Colonies and of the United States. 
In the remaining Sections were well represented a variety of 
exhibits, viz., insects on trees, fungi injurious to trees, working 
' plans, books on forestry,“etc. 
As regards nature study, the exhibits consisted of specimens 
of work actually done in rural, elementary, and secondary 
schools. The exhibits sent in by the Lea and Cromford schools, 
Derbyshire, were very fine indeed. It is almost impossible to 
exaggerate the beneficial character of this training of the youthful 
mind. It will no doubt have an important influence on the 
future welfare of the people, while at the same time it must have 
important bearings on forestry, inasmuch as any youth receiving 
a training of this sort prior to beginning the study of practical 
and theoretical forestry cannot fail to have developed two im- 
portant faculties, viz., those of observation and deduction. 
