REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1902 rl03 



bolts by which gypsum can be bolted as fine as flour. It is either 

 sacked or loaded in bulk on track scales at the side of the 

 mill. The output of plaster for the fiscal year just closed was 

 15,000 tons. The entire product is shipped by the Buffalo, Roch- 

 ester & Pittsburg Railroad. The company is provided with 

 storage room, so that the plaster made during the winter can 

 be stored for the spring season. 



In the upper mill an insecticide called " Black Death/' made 

 with gypsum as a basis, is manufactured for the O-at-ka Chem- 

 ical Co., which is under the same management as the Wheatland 

 Co. About 250 tons were sold last year. 



The mine is reached by a bridge across the creek, on a level 

 with the mill floors and the horizontal tunnel running into the 

 mine. The plaster rock runs in a pure vein 6 or 7 feet in thick- 

 ness, averaging 6 feet. It is about 6 feet above creek level 

 and is overlain by 40 to 50 feet of waterlime, and underlain 

 by a bed of carbonate of lime. It is reported that under this is 

 another bed of plaster considerably thicker. The roof of this 

 mine is without a seam and is supported by pillars of the gypsum 

 20 to 30 feet apart. The common Jeffrey Manufacturing Co. 

 hand coal drills are used for drilling. For blasting, a 2Q# nitro 

 glycerin is used. After the rock is blasted out in the different 

 headings, it is loaded on mule cars. About 2 tons to a car is a 

 load. The rock is allowed to dry under sheds before being ground. 



Charles H. Root, president and treasurer, states that the com- 

 pany expects to erect a calcining kettle for the manufacture of 

 plaster of paris. 



Peat deposits 



There are several peat deposits in the county, but all of small 

 extent. Several of these have been worked in the past for fuel, 

 but only two on a commercial scale. At present, with one excep- 

 tion, they are not worked. This exception is a small deposit 

 filling a kettle hole in the north side of the Pinnacle range, *4 

 mile east of South Goodman street, Rochester (1 >. It lies partially 

 on the property of the Ellwanger & Barry Nursery Co. and 

 partially on land owned by Charles Barton. The basin is oval, 

 having a length from east to west of about 300 feet and a 

 breadth of perhaps 100 feet. 



