564 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



Great Britain, that few plantations contain one half, and many 

 not one fifth, of the timber they would have contained, had 

 they been properly thinned. The produce of some natural 

 forests that have never been thinned, might be brought in oppo- 

 sition to this affirmation; but, on the contrary, from these may 

 be drawn the strongest arguments for thinning; so that even 

 for this apparently unnatural operation, there may be found a 

 precedent in nature. Natural woods, sown by birds or the 

 winds upon different kinds of surface and various sorts of soil, 

 spring up at different times, and of different degrees of thick- 

 ness and vigour. Hence it is easy to conceive, that those in 

 favourable circumstances will soon overtop the rest; and, if 

 they do not kill, will at least weaken them so much as not to be 

 affected by them, until at last the strongest trees find sufficient 

 room. Thus, though nature be slow in her operations, yet she 

 accomplishes her purpose in the most complete manner. Arti- 

 ficial thinning is only assisting nature; hence leaving even na- 

 tural woods to be thinned by time, would not be economical; 

 and those who argue from the effects produced by time in na- 

 tural forests against thinning artificial plantations, do not con- 

 sider the difference between them, and forget that counteracting 

 or forcing nature is very different from gently assisting her in 

 her operations. Let me remark to such, that in artificial plan- 

 tations the soil is equally cultivated, and the plants are put in 

 the ground much about the same size, and at the same time. 

 Hence, they rush up together all of the same height, producing 



