I assume that anybody who had a lot of land would figure this out pretty quickly. Certainly in the era where many generations grew up on large pieces of managed

I assume that anybody who had a lot of land would figure this out pretty quickly. Certainly in the era where many generations grew up on large pieces of managed land surrounded by unmanaged wilderness (which is to say, most of history), you'd expect people to notice the difference. There's so much received wisdom about agriculture that comes down through the centuries, and this basic fact about forestry is (supposedly) a 21st century discovery?