THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY I I9 



of the distance through shale. Only small pockets of gas were 

 found. The Rushville Membership Gas & Oil Pool drilled tvvo 

 wells near Rushville, Yates co. One well gave an estimated flc^jw 

 of 50,000 cubic feet daily from a depth of 378 feet, while t ie 

 other yielded a little gas which was encountered at 425 feet. At 

 Pavilion, Genesee co., the Pavilion Natural Gas Co. put down a 

 well to a depth of about 2000 feet, which is reported to have been 

 successful. 



Bibliography 



Ashburner, C. A. Petroleum and Natural Gas in New York State. Am. 



Inst. Min. Eng. Trans. 1887. v. 16. 

 Bishop, I. P. Petroleum and Natural Gas in Western New York. N. Y. 



State Geol. 17th An. Rep't. 1899. 

 Oil and Gas in Southwestern New York. N. Y. State Geol. 19th An. 



Rep't. 1901. 

 Orton, Edward. Petroleum and Natural Gas in New York. N. Y. State 



Mus. Bui. 30. 1899. 



PEAT 



The swamp lands of the State quite commonly contain peat beds. 

 It has been estimated that the inundated lands cover from 2000 to 

 3000 square miles, or approximately 1 of the entire surface, 

 though of course the occurrence of peat is not equally extensive. 

 The beds have been worked on a small scale only, principally for 

 agricultural purposes. An impure peat, commonly called muck, is 

 generally used, as the impurities increase the fertilizing value. 

 Experiments have bedn undertaken recently, with the view to 

 manufacturing peat fuel. A small plant has been erected near New 

 Rochelle by the Peat Koal Co., of New York. The peat is pulped 

 and compressed in a Schlickeysen machine, which consists essen- 

 tially of a cylinder provided with a rotating axis that carries pro- 

 jecting blades. The compressed peat issues in the form of a con- 

 tinuous block which is cut into convenient lengths for handling. 



The occurrence of peat in New York has been described very 

 fully in the early reports of Beck, Mather and Hall and more 

 recently in the papers by Ries and Parsons, to which reference will 

 be found under the appended bibliography. The following para- 

 graph is quoted from the paper by Parsons. 



It would be difficult to find a spot in the entire State that is more 

 than 10 miles from a swamp, and though not all swamps furnish 

 peat, yet it is within the limits of probability that peat will be found 

 in at least half of them. The most extensive group of swamps 

 is found in the Finger lake region and the lowlands near the St 

 Lawrence river, thoueh the larjre^t swamp of all, the Drowned 



Lands of the Wallkill, is in the mountainous part of Orange county, 



