How much can cropping help?

The image below was taken of a tree stump in September:

I cropped it within Photoshop as shown below:

However even with cropping of the image the texture which is the main interest of the tree stump does not dominate.


I think I shall not persevere further with this image. However the tree stump is still in my garden, so I shall try to compose a more interesting image. Perhaps some research into still life is required.