58 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The sand and gravel beds of the State are mainly of glacial 

 origin, as the whole territory within the limits of New York, in 

 common with the northern section of the United States east of the 

 Rocky mountains, was invaded by the Pleistocene ice sheet which 

 removed all the loose material accumulated by previous weathering 

 and erosion, and left in its retreat a mantle of transported boulders, 

 gravels, sands and clays. In places these accumulations have the 

 character of unmodified drift or morainal accumulations in which 

 the materials are more or less intermixed, and are then of little 

 industrial value. But more generally the deposits show a sorted 

 stratiform arrangement due to having been worked over by the 

 glacial streams and lakes. Such is the condition in many of the 

 larger valleys like those of the Hudson, Champlain and Genesee 

 where sands, gravels and clays occur separately in terraced beds 

 extending far above the present water level. Later water action 

 may have effected a beneficial re-sorting of the materials as in- 

 stanced by the beach sands of Long Island and some of the lakes 

 in the interior of the State. 



A measure of the importance of the sand and gravel in- 

 dustry may be had from the accompanying table which, however, 

 lacks something in the way of completeness and accuracy. The 

 figures relating to the molding sand production are believed to be 

 a close approximation to the actual totals, but those for building 

 sand and gravel may vary considerably from the true quantities, 

 perhaps understating them by as much as 25 per cent. The build- 

 ing sand operations are so widely scattered and in many ^ sections 

 carried on in such haphazard or fugitive manner that it is extremely 

 difficult to cover them all in a statistical canvass. 



Production of sand and gravel 





MATERIAL 



1910 



1911 



1912 



Molding sand 



$424 015 



33 709 

 1 016 598 



65 835 

 589 55i 



$420 780 



27 484 



b 750 000 



b 50 000 



479 103 



$422 148 



55 9io 



1 156 002 



b 75 000 



840 669 



Core and fire sand 



Building sand 



Other sand a 



Gravel 



Total 



$2 129 708 



$1 727 367 



$2 549 729 



a Includes glass sand, filter sand, engine and polishing sand. 

 b Partly estimated. 



