New York State 81 



Ziuc ore has been mined for the last four or five years in St. 

 Lawrence County, practically a new industry in this region. There 

 are deposits of this ore also in Orange, Sullivan, and Delaware 

 counties that have received some attention but do not attain the 

 importance of those in the western Adirondacks, where the product 

 has reached a value of over $1, 000,000 a year on the basis of 

 market value of the contents. 



The mining of pyrite for acid manufacture is another St. 

 Lawrence County industry, where it has attained considerable 

 importance. Talc is also mined there on a large scale, the product 

 of ground talc from the Gouverneur district being especially 

 notable, as the article finds its way into all parts of the United 

 Spates and into foreign countries as a particularly desirable grade. 

 About 75,000 tons of talc are mined each year, worth $10 or more 

 a ton in ground condition. 



Probably not many citizens of the state are acquainted with 

 the fact that New York possesses the largest salt mines in the 

 country or that its production of this essential commodity is 

 equivalent to about one-third of all the salt consumed in the United 

 States. Salt making is one of the oldest branches of the mineral 

 industry, carried on continuously since about 1790, When the 

 Onondaga salt springs were first utilized by the white settlers in 

 central New York. The brine salt industry in that section is no 

 longer important, the discovery of the rock salt beds in Onondaga, 

 Gencsco, Wyoming. Livingston, Tompkins, and Schuyler counties 

 in the latter decades of the last century having opened the way to 

 the exploitation of these resources. Livingston County produces 

 all the rock salt, which is obtained by underground mining through 

 shafts over 1,000 feet in vertical depth. Elsewhere, the salt is 

 brought to the surface in the form of brines by drilled wells into 

 which fresh waters are introduced and then pumped back after 

 saturation. The salt beds underlie several thousand square miles, 

 constituting one of the great natural resources of the state, whose 

 potential value can hardly be estimated. 



Gypsum is found in the same strata as the salt ; it is mined 

 mostly in Erie, Genesee, and Monroe counties. The product is 

 converted into stucco or wall plaster, or is sold in crude form for 

 admixture with Portland cement and for use as land plaster in 



