56 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Production of common building brick in New York 



QUANTITY 



VALUE PER 

 THOUSAND 



1904 



1905 

 1906 

 1907 

 1908 

 1909 

 I9IO 

 I9II 

 I912 



I913 

 I914 



I915 

 1916 

 I917 

 I918 



275 



493 



I 575 

 351 

 056 



507 

 396 

 066 

 190 

 090 

 932 

 934 

 977 

 656 

 313 



859 000 

 459 000 

 434 000 

 591 000 

 769 283 

 126 000 

 606 000 

 982 000 

 374 000 

 506 000 

 759 000 

 726 000 

 085 000 

 508 000 

 638 000 



'7 234 876 

 9 751 753 

 9 302 165 



7 201 525 



5 064 194 



8 009 766 



6 563 212 



5 310 511 



6 666 945 



5 938 922 

 4 597 856 



4 886 734 



6 433 266 



5 068 028 

 3 050 037 



67 



53 

 98 



33 

 79 

 31 

 70 

 98 

 61 

 45 

 93 

 22 



59 



72 

 72 



Altogether there are probably 175 yards equipped for making 

 brick, although the number actually operated in the last few years 

 has fallen considerably short of that figure, owing to a combination 

 of conditions. In 1906 there were 213 plants engaged in the common 

 brick industry of which 131 were situated in the nine counties 

 comprising the Hudson River district. With the decline of demand 

 which has manifested itself in the last decade a considerable number 

 of yards have been dismantled. 



There has been less change or improvement in methods of brick 

 making than in almost any other branch of the mineral industry 

 carried on within the State. Nearly all of the common brick are made 

 by soft mud machines, dried largely in open yards and burned in 

 scove kilns. These methods are wasteful of labor, fuel and also 

 of product, of which a considerable share consists of rain-washed and 

 underbumed brick, under the best circumstances. It is commonly 

 held that the soft plastic clays, like those in the Hudson valley, 

 are scarcely amenable to any other process, but this should not 

 be accepted as a general principle without actual working tests, 

 since there is known to be a great deal of variation in the character 

 of the clays within a single district. 



In the Hudson River region which includes the strip on both 

 banks from Albany and Rensselaer coimties south to Rockland and 

 Westchester, the output in a normal season has amounted to 

 1,000,000,000 brick and in some years has ranged well above that 

 nimiber. In 1906 for example, it was 1,230,692,000, probably the 



