24 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



or mother trees there will be no difficulty in preserving 

 forever the forests of the Sierra. The Digger Indian 

 system of forestry will not give timber as a crop; but it 

 must give place to systematic forestry which will admit 

 of either cutting close and reseeding with valuable timber 

 such as sugar-pine or sequoia or both ; or by cutting only 

 mature trees, leaving growing timber and seedlings for 

 future generations. The observations of the writer lead 

 conclusively to the opinion that the recuperative powers 

 of Sierra Nevada forests are so great that to preserve 

 them only fire protection and cutting out superabundant 

 young growth is necessary. 



To aid in the extension of the best species two systems 

 should be followed: First, inferior species should be 

 cut out before seeding, and superior species should be 

 allowed to seed and be planted; second, in regions near 

 the upper limits of superior species they should be syste- 

 matically extended and aided, as all species are naturally 

 reaching out toward higher elevations. The situation 

 is by no means as black as it has been painted, and only 

 requires systematic and sustained protection and aid to 

 maintain the Sierra Nevada forever as a source of wealth 

 both of timber and water. 



San Francisco, October 30, 1905, 



