302 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



are the largest consumers of St Lawrence county talc, other 

 important outlets are found in the manufacture of wall plasters, in 

 the paint and rubber trade, and many other industries. 



The production reached record figures, amounting to 93,236 

 short tons valued at $961,510, larger by nearly 20,000 tons than 

 the total reported in the best previous year. The contributing 

 mining companies were the same as enumerated in the preceding 

 year, inclusive of the International Pulp Co., the Uniform Fibrous 

 Talc Co., and the Ontario Talc Co. in the Gouverneur district and 

 the St Lawrence Talc Co., with a mine at Natural Bridge. The 

 International Pulp Co. operated several mines situated in the Talc- 

 ville and Sylvia Lake sections, the principal producers having been 

 No. 2^ and No. 3 mines in the former section and the Balmat 

 mine in the other. The Uniform Fibrous Talc Co. worked its 

 single property on Wintergreen hill, below Talcville, where its mill 

 is also situated. The Ontario Talc Co. lost its mill by fire and has 

 gone out of business. Its mine near Fullerville contains a good 

 body of fibrous talc and will doubtless be worked again, although 

 it has been allowed to fill with water. 



The St Lawrence Talc Co. produces a different grade of talc 

 from the others, which finds special uses. 



There has been no new work undertaken in the St Lawrence 

 county talc district for several years. The industry in fact suffered 

 for a long time from overexpansion, with mine and mill capacity 

 that far exceeded the market outlet for the product. This con- 

 dition has been gradually remedied by the shutting down of mines 

 from time to time, and recently by the unexpected expansion of the 

 trade which it is not yet certain will prove more than a temporary 

 feature. There is no doubt that the profits in the business hitherto 

 have been smaller than they should have been by reason of com- 

 petition among the producers on the one hand and the payment in 

 many instances of excessive royalties to the owners of the mineral 

 rights covering the talc. The latter are often held apart from the 

 land surface and the owners have been able to exact heavy royalties, 

 amounting to as much as $1 a ton on the output, several times over 

 what is ordinarily considered a fair tax on other minerals of 

 approximately the same value. 



The talc business was started in St Lawrence county in the last 

 of the seventies of the last century, and began to take on importance 

 about 1880 since which time the output has amounted to nearly 

 1,800,000 tons valued at nearly $16,000,000. 



