294 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The output of granite in 1916 had a value of $368,119, as com- 

 pared with $422,597 in 191 5. The value of the building stone was 

 $173,431, against $261,091 in the preceding year. Monumental 

 stone accounted for a value of $9293 ($19,926 in 191 5) and crushed 

 stone for $55,196 ($61,965 in 1915). The output of paving blocks 

 was valued at $44,437. Rubble and riprap represents a value of 

 $81,412. 



LIMESTONE 



The stone classified under the heading of limestone consists for 

 the most part of the common grades of limestone and dolomite, such 

 as are characterized by a compact granular or finely crystalline 

 texture and are lacking in ornamental qualities. A smaller part is 

 represented by crystalline limestones and by the waste products of 

 marble quarrying which are sometimes employed for crushed stone, 

 lime-making or flux. Limestone used for the manufacture of port- 

 land and natural cement is, however, excluded from the tabulations 

 so as to avoid any duplication of the statistics. 



Limestones have a wide distribution in the State, the only region 

 which is not well supplied being the southern part, where the 

 prevailing formations are sandstones of upper Devonic age. The 

 micro-crystalline varieties occur in regularly stratified order in the 

 Cambric, Lower Siluric, Upper Siluric and the lower and middle 

 parts of the Devonic system. In most sections they occupy con- 

 siderable belts and have been little disturbed from their original 

 position. On the borders of the Adirondacks and in the meta- 

 morphic Hudson River region, however, they have been more or 

 less broken up by. faulting and erosion and in places have a very 

 patchy distribution. 



The main limestone formations of the State are the Beekman- 

 town, developed in the Champlain and Mohawk valleys, usually 

 rather impure and hence not very important economically; the 

 Chazy limestone in the Champlain valley, with its time equivalent 

 the Pamelia limestone in Jefferson county, one of the highest grade 

 calcium limestones in the State and suitable for nearly all purposes, 

 even being employed as ornamental stone by reason of its attractive 

 color and the ornamental pattern it takes on in polished condition, 

 from the presence of fossils ; the Trenton limestones which include 

 the several members known as the Lowville, Black River and Tren- 

 ton, developed on the eastern, southern and western sides of the 

 Adirondacks, extensively employed for cement, lime, flux and vari- 

 ous structural uses ; the Niagara beds, mainly represented in the 



