94 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
tical canvass of such small and temporary enterprises is a matter 
of great difficulty and is likely to afford very unreliable results. 
For that reason the statistics in this report are mostly based on 
statements furnished by dealers who operate in the bluestone dis- 
tricts and who act as middlemen between the individual quarries 
and the larger contractors or consumers in New York and other 
large cities. The larger part of the curb and flagstone in the 
Delaware and Hudson River districts is handled by such dealers. 
The production of sandstone during the last two years is shown 
in the accompanying tables which give its distribution also among 
the leading districts. 
The quarries of both bluestone and ordinary sandstone were 
slightly more active last year than in 1911. The combined value 
of all the sandstone quarried was $1,280,743 against $1,060,1c6 in 
the preceding year. The gain of $220,637 or about 20 per cent, 
did not restore the industry to its position in the year 1910, when 
the value of the output amounted to $1,451,796. The totals are 
exclusive of any sandstone quarried by contractors for use on the 
State highway system, for which it is impossible to assign any 
accurate figure. 
Of the total value of the output for 1912, bluestone constituted 
a little less than two-thirds, in actual figures, $824,949. In the 
year 1911, it had a value of $718,777, indicating a good gain, but 
not counterbalancing the declines of preceding years. The flagstone 
industry has met with increasing competition from makers of cement 
walks and the output has shrunk to less than half of its former 
proportions. The total for flag and curbstones was $503,189 against. 
$432,327 in 1911. The value of bluestone used for building pur- 
poses was $295,450 as compared with $280,300 in 1911. The other 
uses are relatively unimportant. 
Sandstone other than bluestone constituted a value of $455,704 
against $340,729 in 1911. The main item in the total was paving 
blocks valued at $188,802 against $162,220. Orleans county, which 
is the principal center of the Medina sandstone industry, accounted 
for a total value of $340,796, as compared with $225,862 in the 
preceding year. 
