MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 4I 



to strengthen its position and increase its production at a time of 

 unrestricted and intense competition. 



The larger part of the manufacturing capacity of the State plants 

 is represented by the mills along the Hudson river below Albany. 

 This district includes a narrow strip on the river in Greene and 

 Columbia counties where limestones of the Cayugan and Helder- 

 bergian formations have been exposed in ledges by the cutting down 

 of the valley across the general strike. This district possesses great 

 advantages for the shipment of cement, since it has easy access to 

 tidewater and important markets on the adjacent seaboard. There 

 are five mills in the district, three in the vicinity of Catskill, Greene, 

 county, and two near Hudson, Columbia cotmty. The Alpha 

 Portland Cement Co. operates a mill on the riverside near Smith 

 Landing, Greene county, which was formally owned by the Catskill 

 Cement Co. The limestone (Becraft) is taken from quarries situated 

 on the high ledge, about one-half mile back from the river. Alsen's 

 American Portland Cement Works are situated at Alsen, on the 

 West Shore railroad, and close to the ledge, about a mile north of 

 the quarries worked by the former company. A short railroad 

 connects the plant with the docks on the river. The Acme Cement 

 Co. started production in 1916 in the plant built by the Seaboard 

 Portland Cement Co., between Alsen and Catskill. Its quarries 

 are in the same series of limestone ledges and the clays are from the 

 terraced beds of Hudson River clays. On the east side of the river 

 in the vicinity of Hudson are the mills of the Knickerbocker Portland 

 Cement Co. and the New York and New England Cement & Lime 

 Co., situated on the edge of Becraft mountain, an isolated outlier of 

 the same limestones that outcrop along the west side of the valley. 

 The section exposed here includes the Manlius, Coeymans, New 

 Scotland, Becraft and Port Ewen limestone beds. 



In the eastern section of the State also are the mills of the Helder- 

 berg Cement Co. and of the Glens Falls Portland Cement Co. The 

 former is located at Howes Cave, Schoharie county, where the Cayu- 

 gan and Helderbergian formations provide many limestone beds, 

 some of which are suitable for portland cement and others for natural 

 cement. The first plant was erected to make natural cement and 

 for a time both grades were manufactured. The present portland 

 cement mill was erected about 1900 but has been improved and 

 extended. Glens Falls on the upper Hudson river, where it de- 

 bouches from the Adirondacks, has been the site of portland cement 

 manufacture since 1804. It is well situated for the markets of 



