24 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
from a plaster rock with average thickness of 6 or 7 feet. The 
gypsum is covered by a water lime and rests upon a lime- 
stone. The various pits to the west work a plaster rock of about 
6 feet in thickness. The section of gypsum rock shows 18 feet 
of hard bottom, 18 feet of white gypsum, and then 6 or 7 feet of 
gray rock. At Oakfield, in Genesee county, where there are 
three plaster quarries, the deposit of plaster rock is only 4 feet 
thick and is of very white color. Prospecting for gypsum 
throughout the state centers on the knolls or rises in ground. 
Near Alabama station, in Genesee county, is the farthest west 
the gypsum is worked in the state. In the region near Fayette- 
ville the combined product makes it the second largest producer 
of plaster. 
Drilling shows that under Buffalo* at a depth of 50 feet there 
is a deposit of over 20 feet of white gypsum. Attempts were 
made by the Buffalo Cement Company to mine this by sinking 
a shaft, but the inflow of water stopped the work and it was 
abandoned. 
The greatest thickness of gypsum rock in the state is near 
Syracuse, at the Severance quarry, where the rock is 60 feet 
thick in places, and divided into eight well-marked layers vary- 
ing in thickness from 18 inches to 30 feet. The deposit is cov- 
ered with 350 to 40 feet of shaly rock and limestone. The 
amount of lime sulphate is greatest in the crystalline layers 
and least in the brown layers. ‘The rock varies in color from 
light drab in the cap to a dark brown, and all layers appear to 
become lighter from weathering. The so-called slate consists 
of fibrous, scaly and other forms of crystalline gypsum, and is 
essentially the purest gypsum of the series. The rock is re- 
ported as suitable for plaster of Paris or stucco for walls. 
Twenty-two companies are engaged in quarrying the gypsum 
which is found in Madison, Onondaga, Cayuga, Ontario, Monroe 
and Genesee counties. The approximate yearly tonnage is 
given as 37,000 tons, with an average price of $2.75 per ton, or 
a total value of $100,000. According to the reports of the 
4, Cement Rock and Gypsum Deposits in Buffalo, by Julius Pohlman, Transactions Ameri- 
can Institute of Mining Engineers, XVII, p. 250, 1888-’89. 
