THROUGH THE YEAR 183 



saying, " You cannot see the wood for the trees " ; 

 for they are so thick that one can see no distance 

 into the wood. 



The employment of competition in Nature by 

 man is entirely a success. We see it in the oak, 

 but still oftener in the larch wood. Generally 

 farmers and gardeners must spend much time in 

 thinning the crop soon after it begins to spring : 

 they hasten Nature through her work of competition. 

 But in the modern oak wood or larch plantation man 

 reverses the process he deliberately thickens 

 instead of thinning the competing crowd, and, 

 doing so, gets the form of tree he needs in the 

 shortest time he can. 



This deliberate encouragement of competition 

 in Nature, this adding to, accenting of it, may be 

 the only example of the kind in forestry or farming. 

 I cannot think of another. Yet competition rules 

 everywhere in Nature. It is as great a law as gravi- 

 tation. Without it, order is unthinkable. We can 

 no more bar it with success in human life than we 

 could bar it in Nature. And, yet to-day there is a 

 party of men in almost every great State who dream 

 of re-making civilisation on a new foundation ! 

 They will not go to Nature, and learn the simplest 

 of the lessons. 



