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J.M.2. mit timber-cutting. It would be better for the State of New-York to pay 25 to keep every tree than to get 150 for
each tree cut. I have just made a formal suggestion to the Sierra Club that it take up a campaign for the recession of the
Yosemite by the next Legislature. Of course a good deal of work would have to be done now, and it seems to me the Sierra Club
ought to do it. They have already tested the feeling of the State in the direction of forest preservation and those of us
who are most strenuously urging recession are the very people who have in the main been responsible for the forest reservation
policy which is now recognized to be a great boon to California. I am sure that if three or four of you were to sign an appeal
to the people in this matter, you could get signatures all over the State from influential men, and could make a strong impression
upon the newspapers, and thus organize public opinion for recession. It is enough that at its best the State control has not
proved a success, but has been a bone of contention; whereas the Yellowstone has been admirably managed by Government supervision.
I am now wondering whether we cannot get a start made in Washington in favor of transferring all these forest reservations
to the War Department, and at the same time of establishing a chair of forestry at West Point in accordance with Prof. Sargent's
suggestion. If I were in Congress I should 01812