342 



Forestry at Nurnberg Exhibition, [sept., 



currently with this decrease in value, the returns from coppice 

 woods have steadily declined, being 13s. gd. per acre in 1885 

 and 8s. in 1905. But during the same period the returns from 

 high forest have shown a satisfactory increase, having risen 

 from 9s. per acre in the former year to lis. 9d. in the latter. 

 The cause of the fall in price of home-grown bark is the large 

 increase in the importation of tanning materials, notably que- 

 bracho wood, specimens of which, and of the extract, were on 

 view. 



A number of interesting cross-sections were shown to illustrate 

 the great increase in growth that results from heavily thinning 

 a wood of oak or beech a few years before the final felling 

 {Lichtungszuwachs). On the section a zone of a certain colour 

 {e.g. red) represents the growth made by the tree, during say, 

 ten years, before being isolated, while outside this the timber 

 formed since the wood was thinned may be artificially stained 

 green. The annual increment due to the admission of light 

 is usually very great, and is often as much as 20 per cent., 

 that is to say, a tree of 30 cubic feet may, in three years, have 

 attained to about 50 cubic feet. 



A number of cones formed of sections, two inches thick, taken 

 every meter (3*3 feet) along an average stem, are shown illustra- 

 tive of the yield of different species under different conditions. 

 Thus, a beech wood 131 years old in Spessart has an average 

 height of 115 feet, and carries 7,835 cubic feet per acre, quarter 

 girth measure. An average oak from a forest in Spessart (over 

 200 years old) is shown in section, the height being 119 feet, 

 and the volume per acre, quarter girth measure, 10,325 cubic 

 feet. A spruce wood, 60 years old, in the Bayrischer Wald is 

 similarly represented, the average height being 86 feet, and the 

 contents per acre 5,820 cubic feet, quarter girth measure. 



The export and import timber trade for the whole German 

 Empire is represented graphically, and shows that whereas in 

 1880 the imports amounted to less than two million tons, valued 

 at less than four million pounds, in 1904 they exceeded five 

 million tons, valued at nearly twelve million pounds sterling. 

 During the same period the export in timber fell from 830,000 

 tons, valued at a little over two million pounds to 323,000 tons 

 of a value slightly exceeding one million pounds. Thus it is 



