GRIMSLEY. | Technology of Gypsum. 109 
and let the same teams draw fuel from the railroad station 
which carry the finished plaster from the mills to the railroad. 
Acting on this principle, the Acme Cement Company estab- 
lished their mills at Rhodes, and haul the fuel from the road to 
the mills and the finished product from the mills to the road. 
So did also the Aluminite Company, whose mills are little more 
than half as far from the railway station as those at Rhodes. 
In some instances a company would certainly be justified in 
building a switch from the nearest railroad point to the mines. 
This question is one which should be decided upon the merits 
of each individual case. If the deposit of gypsum is small, a 
company would not be justified in going to much expense to 
build a switch to the mines. Neither would one be justified in 
building a switch very many miles,in length, unless the gyp- 
sum deposits were sufficiently large to warrant a strong com- 
pany in contemplating the manufacture of plaster on a large 
scale for along time. Also the character of the ground over 
which the road must pass is a factor of great importance, and 
which must be determined for each individual case. Railroad 
companies are generally willing to construct their own lines 
whenever the prospective amount of freight is sufficiently 
great. 
Should the mines be too far away from railroads the present 
prices of gypsum cement plasters will not warrant the estab- 
lishment of mills, no matter how abundant the material may 
be. Different areas in Kansas at the present time are under 
just this series of conditions. This is most markedly the case 
in connection with the immense deposits of gypsum in Barber 
and Comanche counties. Were these same masses of material 
properly located with reference to fuel and shipping facilities, 
they would be the greatest bonanza known in the state, or in 
the Mississippi valley. But with markets as they are and the 
location as it is, so far from a railroad line and so far from the 
ereat centers where plaster is extensively used, these millions 
upon millions of tons of as good gypsum as is known in the 
world must remain comparatively untouched until conditions 
change so as to favor their consumption. 
