Value of JBrown-Oak. 
125 
Isolated trees frequently attain large dimensions, especially 
in girth, but the timber thus produced is very rough and 
knotty. If trees were closely planted and only absolutely 
necessary thinnings made, most valuable statistics of their rate 
of growth would be available. Specimens of Scotch pine 
timber exhibited by the Duke of Northumberland showed 
the good effects of close growth in the production of pine 
timber. 
Some interesting exhibits showing the comparative 
durability of creosoted and uncreosoted timber were exhibited 
by the Duke of Northumberland and by the Earl of Yarborough. 
Larch rails and posts from Brocklesby that were uncreosoted 
had rotted in nine years, while similar wood creosoted was as 
sound as when it was first used, although it had been exposed 
to the weather for nine years. It was shown to be indifferent 
for creosoted wood, whether it were used on clay, calcareous, 
or sandy soil. Even spruce posts when creosoted were quite 
sound after seven years’ use in the ground. Horses will not 
gnaw creosoted timber. 
Mr. E. R. Pratt, of Ryston Hall, Downham, Norfolk, 
exhibited a magnificent black-oak door, made of bog-oak 
dug from Roxham Fen in 1904, and supposed to be 70,000 
years old. The Royal Agricultural Society exhibited nine 
photographs, presented by Mr. G. Richardson, of Stamford, of 
brown-oak trees, grown in Rockingham Forest, Northampton- 
shire, and in Welbeck Park, Notts. The frames of the 
photographs were also made of brown-oak. Considering the 
high value of brown-oak — 10s. a cubic foot — some attempt 
should be made to ascertain whether this peculiarity is 
inherited in trees grown from acorns of brown-oak trees. 
There can be no doubt that, although some brown-oak is due 
to a commencement of decay, other brown-oak is perfectly 
sound, and extends throughout the tree up into its branches, 
as far as the heart wood goes. Such sound brown-oak is 
hard, and has a bright lustre that is not possessed by partly 
decayed brown-oak, which is often offered by dealers as a 
substitute for the real article. 
The Commissioners of His Majesty’s Woods, Forests, and 
Land Revenues exhibited several interesting photographs 
and specimens of timber. They also exhibited the working 
plan of High Meadow Wood, adjoining the Forest of Dean. 
This is managed chiefly as coppice- with-standards, with 
twenty-five years’ rotation for the underwood, which, like 
that of many woodlands on the Continent, is sold as pit 
timber. No form of woodland is more suitable for private 
management than the old English method of coppice-with- 
standards. It is therefore deplorable that, owing to the 
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