X PREFACE. 



Reed, W. Raymond Lee, of Boston, and A. E. Swasey, of 

 Taunton, I received facilities in ascertaining the quantity of 

 wood consumed on rail-roads ; and from my friends, T. B. 

 Curtis, of Boston, and H. Kingsbury, of Kennebunk, Me., let- 

 ters containing valuable information in regard to the kinds and 

 quantities of wood employed in ship-building. 



To my friends, Dr. O. W. Holmes, whose poetical eye is also 

 an eye for trees, and J. J. Dixwell, who knows how to represent 

 them, I am indebted for numerous measurements of trees ; and 

 to my learned friend Dr. A. A. Gould, who, to his other attain- 

 ments in natural science, unites a familiar knowledge of botany, 

 I am particularly indebted for most important advice and assist- 

 ance in very many instances. 



In the ship-yards in Boston, New Bedford and other towns 

 in the State, and the numerous saw-mills, machine-shops, and 

 manufactories of furniture, of agricultural implements, and of all 

 other articles of wood, and on the farms and wood-lots in all 

 parts of the Commonwealth, whither I went, in almost all in- 

 stances, a stranger, to make inquiries, — every where, with one 

 solitary exception, 1 was very civilly received, and had my ques- 

 tions answered with the greatest kindness and intelligence ; and 

 every where I found a readiness to furnish me, or let me furnish 

 myself, with specimens of the flowers, leaves, fruit and wood of 

 the trees I was examining. To all persons from whom I have 

 received these acts of kindness, I would here make my cordial 

 acknowledgments. I shall always esteem it one of the best fruits 

 of my labors in this Survey, that they have brought me better 

 acquainted than I otherwise could have been, with the intelli- 

 gence, hospitality, and good and kind manners of the com- 

 mon people in every part of the State. If there are better 

 manners and a higher intelligence among the people in other 

 countries, I should like to travel amongst them ; but I very 

 much doubt whether, in any country on which the sun shines, 

 there arc, amongst the people in common life, more of those qual- 

 ities which are always pleasant to meet with, delightful to re- 

 member, and most honorable to our common humanity to record, 

 than are found among the independent mechanics and yeomanry 

 of Massachusetts. 



