288 



Report of the State Geologist. 



The principal part of this sand is used in the construction of buildings, 

 cement sidewalks, and pavements in the city of Syracuse. The Adamant 

 Plaster Co. uses 4,000 cubic yards; the Eureka Plaster Co. uses 4,500 cubic 

 yards, with capacity recently increased to 7,000 cubic yards; and the Paragon 

 Plaster Co. uses 6,000 cubic yards annually in the manufacture of wall plaster 

 prepared ready for use, which is to a large extent shipped out of the county. 

 In the northern towns good sand is found abundantly sufficient for local use, 

 though no large deposits were observed. 



Clay beds of the Champlain epoch occur in all the valleys in the county 

 south of the line of the limestone outcrop. Many of them show by their red 

 color that they were derived, in part, at least, from the Salina shales. A 

 large deposit of this stiff' red clay occurs at the south end of the Onondaga 

 valley in the vicinity of the salt wells, at a distance of seventeen miles from 

 the nearest present exposure of the red shales and 200 feet higher. University 

 hill in Syracuse, is partly composed of the red clay, generally mixed with 

 fragments of shale and limestone. In the middle of Onondaga valley, in the 

 southern part of the city of Syracuse near Brighton and Midland avenues, 

 there is an extensive deposit of clay which is owned by the Syracuse 

 Pressed 4>rick Co. It is on the flat in the middle of the valley, at an elevation 

 of about 450 feet A. T. - When the alluvial sod which is eight to twelve inches 

 thick is removed, a bed of reddish brown clay two and one half to three feet 

 thick is found, from which bricks of a rich dark red are made. The next one 

 and one-half feet below includes the irregular contact line between the upper 

 bed and the second one, and this material is made into ordinary building 

 bricks which are of various shades of red or buff, and sometimes mottled. The 

 second stratum of clay from the top is three feet thick. It contains less iron, 

 and bricks made from it are light buff. They are burned hard, and like the 

 dark red ones from the upper layer, are used as facing brick. 



The lower bed is dark bluish brown, and is made into ordinary building 

 brick. The company employs forty men and fifteen boys during the season. 

 The output in 1895 was 4,000,000. This company has recently purchased 118 

 acres of laud east of the city on which are large clay deposits, and expects in 

 the immediate future to manufacture on a large scale bricks from these beds. 



On the north side of the city just beyond the corporation line there are 

 several brick yards. The owners are: 



Preston Bros., 7th and North streets; employ eighteen men. Annual 

 output, 2,000,000. 



(i. W. Peck<& Son, 7th and North streets ; fifteen men. Output, 1,500,000. 



