78 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 

 Production of granite 



VARIETY 



I9II 



1912 



1913 



Building 



Monumental. . 

 Crushed stone . 

 Rubble, riprap 

 Other kinds . . . 



Total 



$30 684 



11 353 



72 401 



28 162 



6 033 



$65 487 

 19 130 

 49 307 

 27 861 

 40 311 



$148 633 



$202 096 



$45 9ii 

 17 013 



236 650 



9 722 



26 346 



$335 642 



QUARRY NOTES 



Keeseville. The development of quarries in the vicinity of 

 Keeseville was under way during 19 13. The Empire State Granite 

 Co. opened two quarries on lands of George W. Smith, about a 

 mile west of Keeseville, near the Clintonville road, and did some 

 exploratory work in the vicinity of Augur lake> southeast of that 

 village. The rock in both places is anorthosite, the same as that 

 once quarried at Keeseville under the name of " Ausable granite." 

 The present openings west of Keeseville yield a more uniform 

 material than the Prospect hill quarries which were the source of 

 the product in earlier years. A notable feature of the stone which 

 differentiates it from ordinary granites is its color — a light, trans- 

 lucent green on both fractured and polished surfaces. The com- 

 position, of course, is also quite distinct from that of granite proper, 

 being characterized by a predominance of the lime-soda feldspar 

 labradorite-. This constitutes from 75 to 85 per cent of the mass. 

 It composes most of the body where it is finely divided and also 

 occurs in scattered crystals of larger size which lend the effect 

 of a porphyritic texture, as the larger individuals have a dark 

 color. Besides feldspar, there is some pyroxene, black when seen 

 in the hand specimen, red garnet in threadlike aggregates, and 

 ilmenite of opaque black color. The stone is remarkable for its 

 fresh condition at the very surface, there being only a thin skin, 

 not over one-half inch thick, of bleached material on the exposed 

 surfaces which have been subject to weathering since Glacial time. 



One of the quarries on the Smith property is on the side of a 

 ridge which affords a working face 50 feet high. The rock is broken 

 by joints at rather wide intervals, there being two main systems 

 of vertical joints, the one about north-south and the other at right 



