This ill-fated survey, although started in 1836, wasn’t completed until 1861, as the first three men to head the survey died before completing their work. Edward Hitchcock was the fourth to take on the project, and soon after he started in 1856, a fire destroyed most of his predecessors’ works so that he had to start again from the beginning.
In this excerpt, Hitchcock comments on the quality of the work of his predecessors, describes his goals and plan of action, and names the men working with him, which included his two sons, Charles and Edward, Jr. The most important among the team’s findings was that the amount of lime found in Vermont’s soil explained why it was the richest to be found in New England.