QUARRY MATERIALS OF NEW YORK II 



held their own, and that one or two branches have actually declined. 

 The trade in bluestone within the last seven or eight years has 

 fallen off about 50 per cent, owing to the increasing use of cement 

 in street work. The artificial structural materials — stucco, con- 

 crete and terra cotta — also have affected adversely the market for 

 building stone by which all quarries have been more or less affected. 

 It is impossible of course to predict whether the present popularity 

 of these materials will continue but it is not likely that they will 

 make such great inroads upon the market for stone in the future 

 as in the past. The use of cement has had one compensating fea- 

 ture in that it has made a large demand for crushed stone though 

 this represents a much lower grade of product than building stone. 

 The quarries of limestone at present contribute more than one- 

 half of the total value of the stone products of the State, a ratio 

 which holds also in the country generally. It is the kind most com- 

 monly marketed for crushed stone, and is also extensively employed 

 in metallurgy and chemical manufactures. 



