12 TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
houses, barns, and other large structures, of stone. They would 
then be built, as the forests must be planted, for future genera- 
tions. ‘The best building stones are abundant in almost every 
part of the State, so much so, that in many places they are 
heaped together in walls much higher and wider than are ne- 
cessary for the protection of the fields. If the buildings were 
formed of stone, they would be a permanent addition to the 
value of the property, while, on the contrary, the present tran- 
Sient structures are an inheritance to be perpetually repaired 
and renewed. 
As to ship-building, we have some data. The returns* from 
the various towns in the State, made in 1837, show that the 
average annual value of ships built in five years before that 
time, was 1,370,649 dollars. A great portion of the materials 
was, and a greater might have been furnished by our forests, 
if the oaks and pines of our hills had not been most improv- 
idently wasted by our ancestors. 
The valuable document to which I have referred, shows that 
in 1837 the annual value of casks and hoops made im the State, 
was, . ; . . . . a 202,532 dollars; 
of chairs and cabinet ware, . . ; 61,262,121 * 
‘ lumber, shingles and staves, . ; e 167,778 * 
‘- window blinds, sashes and doors, . d %4,166 « 
‘* wooden ware, including boxes, rakes, 
shoe-pegs, yokes, and helves, ; e 174,692 * 
making an aggregate of . . . 1,881,589 dollars; 
the materials for almost the whole of which must have come 
from our forests. In the manufacture of these, a 194 
6 2011 
e 121 
ad 93 
e 313 
CO eed 
2712 persons 
* See Statistical Tables exhibiting the condition and products of certain branches 
of Industry in Massachusetts, for the year ending Apmi 1, 1837, prepared fiom the 
Returns of the Assessors, by John P. Bigelow, Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
