30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



second model illustrates the methods of occurrence and of extrac- 

 tion of rock salt, as exemplified in the mines of the Sterling Salt 

 Co. This also is to be set up in the Museum as a gift of the 

 exhibitor. 



Mines and quarries. The general trend of the mineral indus- 

 tries in 1914 showed a reversal of that of the preceding year; 

 nearly all branches suffered declines which collectively amounted 

 to about 15 per cent. The total value of the output was returned 

 as $35,870,004, whereas in 1913 it amounted to $41,598,399. The 

 decline of activity was really greater than indicated by the loss of 

 output, since the reaction did not assume seriqus proportions until 

 late summer and then developed rapidly to the close of the season. 

 The foreign situation, of course, was the dominant factor in bring- 

 ing on the depression which affected the whole country. The sub- 

 stances on which the valuations above mentioned are based included 

 over thirty different products, most of them in the forms in which 

 they come from the mines and quarries, without elaboration except 

 so far as is necessary to make them of marketable character. They 

 do not include secondary products like iron and steel, alkali prod- 

 ucts, coke and its by-products, aluminum, carborundum, calcium 

 carbide, sulphuric acid, etc., the manufacture of Avhich constitutes 

 a large industry with an output many times greater than that 

 covered by the industries reviewed in this report. 



Zinc ores. The first shipment of zinc ores from a New York 

 mine, of any considerable consequence at least, was made in 1915 

 as the result of work begun in the Edwards district, St Lawrence 

 county, well known as a source of talc. The deposits are not 

 exactly new in the usual meaning of that phrase, for some of them 

 have been known to local prospectors and mining men for many 

 years, but not until recently have they become the object of an 

 enterprise capable of conducting their development on a com- 

 mercial basis. The new undertaking started under the most favor- 

 able circumstances, the inquiry for zinc ores in the past year having 

 been unprecedented, and the work has served to awaken general 

 interest in the possibilities of the district. The area in which the 

 ores are known or may be expected to occur is rather extensive, 

 embracing a belt of the Precambrian sedimentary formations (the 

 so-called Grenville) that reaches from Sylvia lake in the tov/n of 

 Fowler through the town of Edwards, near the village of which 

 the present operative mine is situated. The belt is somewhat irregu- 

 lar in its bounds, but of unbroken continuity in the stretch of 12 

 miles or more. The different showings or prospects are well 



