CONCLUDING REMARKS. 227 



we have to subject the entire institution to some such 

 rigid civil service rules as exist in the Metropolitan 

 Fire Department or Police Department of the City of 

 New York. Without such unalterable restrictions the 

 management of the State Forests would soon become 

 the most coveted ground for political spoil-hunters, and 

 the State, instead of expecting an income, would soon 

 find its hoped-for revenues crumble down so as to leave 

 only from year to year increasing expenses of manage- 

 ment. 



It is only to be regretted that the said association has 

 thought proper to assume the name of a " Park " associ- 

 ation because this leads to misunderstandings which, as 

 experience shows, may prove injurious to the project by 

 provoking the opposition of our rural legislators. In a 

 correspondence which the author directed to the New 

 York Times, Feb. 27, 1890, it was stated that our coun- 

 try population regarded the project of a forest park in 

 the sense that its aim was the maintaining of woodlands 

 as a shelter for game, and as a region of pleasure resort 

 for those who can afford time and means for this enjoy- 

 ment. For this reason even the harmless provisions 

 made for the preservation of the State forests in the 

 Forestry Act of 1885 experienced a strong opposition 

 in the Legislature, although no considerable grant was 

 demanded, because the opponents of this measure repre- 

 sented to the masses that such parks were but resorts 

 for rich people, and that no regular exploitation of the 

 woods and no felling of trees would take place; and 

 that, therefore, the growth of timber for the supply of 

 man would come to an end, turning out very disastrous 

 to the local population that mostly were subsisting on 

 the products of the woods. 



That this apprehension was well founded shows a 



