No. 115.] 35 



REPORT OF FIELD WORK FOR 1886. 



By Prof. John C. Smock. 



In accordance with the general scheme of museum work, and in 

 what may be termed the division of "Economic Geology" the 

 survey and examination of the building stone quarries of the State 

 was begun in the autumn. A circular letter, with appended list 

 of questions, relative to ownership, name of lessees, amount of 

 capital and value of plant, number of laborers, value of product, 

 distance from public lines of transportation, markets, and date of 

 opening, was prepared and addressed to some of the quarry owners, 

 chiefly in the districts visited. The greater number have come 

 back with data furnished, in answer to these inquiries. The field 

 work was begun in the south-eastern part of the State, and was 

 continued, with some interruptions, to the close of the season. 

 The quarries in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia, Orange 

 and Rockland counties were nearly all visited. A few in Ulster 

 county also were examined. Statistics of the blue-stone quarries 

 of the State were obtained, with notes of the business and localities 

 worked, and other data of that branch of the quarry industry of 

 the State. The plan for this survey of the quarries included the 

 whole State, and the results of this survey were to form a bulletin 

 to be issued during the winter. On account of the lateness of the 

 season when the work was begun, and the want of time to get over 

 the whole territory occupied by the quarry industry, the prepara- 

 tion of the report thereon is necessarily postponed until after 

 another season of field work. It will be possible to complete the 

 observations in the field next summer and autumn, and to present 

 the report in a museum bulletin during the coming winter. In 

 the meantime, the work in the office of sending out circulars, and 

 the study of the specimens, can be started, as also the comparative 

 examination of material from quarries outside of the State, but 

 which come w to our markets and compete with New York stone. 



The importance of the subject is apparent to all who give even 

 the least thought to the great quantity of stone now employed in 



