Transcription:
ARNOLD ARBORETUM. HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Jamaica Plain, Mass. November 28, 1896. My dear Muir: I am much obliged for
your notes about the distribution of Pines, etc. You blandly suggest my doing justice to pinus ponderosa and Pinus contorta
in The Silva. I do not know, however, how you expect me to do it. I thought I knew a little of something about these trees
before I got in with you and travelea in the west this summer. Now my ignorance about them is supreme. As it is always easy
to write of things one does not know, I shall perhaps be able to satisfy some people in The Silva, although neither you nor
I are going to be contented with what I say on this subject. I saw Johnson in New York the other day and he has written you,
no doubt, about the letters on forestry. I hope you will not fail to write them. You can do so better than any one else and
any letters from you on the subject will be extremely useful at this time. You know the situation and my views of it, and
you can write from outside the Commission much more effectively than I can inside of it. I went to Washington the other day
to see the President and the Secretary of the Interior and had most satisfactory interviews with them. They are both fully
alive to the importance of our subject and will do what they can to help. I came away with the conviction. 02180