LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



I'mti'.i) States Department of Ag-ricttltuke, 



Office of Fiber Investigations, 



Washington, D. C, January :?. 1897. 



Sir: 1 have the honor to submit herewith the manuscript ot a 

 descriptive catalogue of 1,018 species of useful fibers of the world. No 

 similar work has previously been published in this country, and no 

 work has appeared in any country with, so full descriptive lists of the 

 commercial and native fibers of the people of the globe, the compila- 

 tion embodying notes, observation, and research by the author during 

 a period of over twenty-five years. During the preparation of the 

 work for publication the author has had the assistance of fiber experts, 

 botanists, and others, in many lands, and it is thought the volume will 

 prove a valuable contribution not only to the literature of economic 

 industries but to ethno-botany as well. 



The demand made upon the Department for information regarding 

 every phase of the fiber industry shows the extent of the industrial 

 interest in fibers and their manufacture, while the popular interest in 

 this subject is evinced by the constant applications received by the 

 Department from teachers in our colleges and schools for fiber speci- 

 mens and literature. To these two classes especially the work will 

 prove most useful, and at the same time it is hoped that it may be of 

 assistance to those writers upon industrial topics who from lack of 

 authoritative information regarding new fibers have sometimes been 

 led into error and misstatement. The alphabetical arrangement of the 

 titles, which include both the common and botanical names of the fiber 

 plants described, affords a ready means of referring to any desired 



species. 



In the portions relating to the study and uses of fibers and on fiber 

 identification the technology of fiber work is presented in the hope 

 that more attention may be given to this work by American students, 

 as it opens u\) a broad field of practical research. 

 I am. respectfully, 



Chas. Richards Dodge, 

 Special Agent, in Charge of Fiber Investigations. 

 lion. J. Steeling .Morton, 



Seeretary. 



