88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tensively used for flag and curbstone, and a large industry is based 

 on tbe quarrying of tbese materials for sale in the eastern cities. 

 Most flagstone is produced in the region along the Hudson and 

 Delaware rivers, where there are convenient shipping facilities to 

 New York, Philadelphia and other large cities. The Hudson river 

 district includes Albany, Greene and Ulster counties, but the quar- 

 ries are mainly situated in the area that includes southern Greene 

 and northern Ulster, with Catskill, Saugerties and Kingston as the 

 chief shipping points. The Delaware river district includes Sulli- 

 van, Delaware and Broome counties ; the shipping stations are 

 along the Erie and the Ontario & Western railroads. The sand- 

 stone of this section ranges from Hamilton to Catskill age. In the 

 area to the west the quarries are confined to the Portage and 

 Chemung groups, with the most important ones in the Portage. 

 There are large, well-equipped quarries near Norwich, Chenango 

 county, and Warsaw, Wyoming county, which produce building 

 stone for the general market. Numerous small quarries are found 

 in Otsego, Chemung, Tompkins, Tioga, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates, 

 Alleghany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. 



Production of sandstone. The accompanying tables give the 

 production of sandstone during the last two years, divided accord- 

 ing to bluestone and other kinds. 



There was a very large falling off in the value of the output last 

 year, the returns showing the lowest aggregate reported at any time 

 since the statistics of the industry have been collected by this office. 

 The combined value of both bluestone and sandstone amounted to 

 $955,063, as compared with $1,451,796 in 1910, a decrease of 

 $496,733 or nearly 35 per cent. The value reported in 1909 was 

 $1,839,798. The industry has thus declined nearly 50 per cent in 

 the two years. 



All districts in which sandstones are quarried have felt the effects 

 of the depression, but the greatest falling off has been in the blue- 

 stone quarries which produce chiefly curb and flagstones. The 

 value of the bluestone output in 1911 was $614,334 against 

 $1,037,637 in 1910 and $1,301,950 in 1909. Of the total for last 

 year, curb and flagstone constituted $337,300, as compared with 

 $385,825 in 1910 and $608,1 16 in [909. The value of bluestone used 

 for building purposes amounted to $270,284 against $351,603 in 1910 

 and $298,631 in 1909. The large decrease in crushed stone last year 

 was due to the completion of a large enterprise in the Hudson river 

 district. 



