Mineral Industries and Geology of Certain Areas - Vermont Agency ...

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44 REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. 45 gadders. We are quarrying 40,000 feet per month. We have the contract for furnishing the marble for the new library in New York, which calls for 500,000 cubic feet of marble." This company have 250 acres of marble property and is doing "considerable prospecting by taking cores from different localities." It also has large mills for dressing marble. There are several other smaller but not unimportant marble companies in the State. The demand for marble as a building stone appears to be rapidly and largely increasing. SLATE.—The slate industry of this State was so fully considered in the last Rep ort* that it will not seem invidious discrimination if little space be given to it here. For full statements as to the quarries, methods of quarrying, geology of the slate belt, etc., the reader is referred to the Report of 1899-1900. For a few years the sales, and consequently the output, of slate in Vermont diminished rather than increased, but for the last few years this condition has been reversed and this year nearly all the companies reporting give very encouraging accounts of active business during the year and excellent prospects for the immediate future. The sales of slate for iqoi were large, amounting to $1,162,191. Besides the vigorous working of most of the quarries in the great slate belt of Rutland county, there has been renewed activity in the Northfield region. There is here a fine series of deposits of black slate which apparently only needs sufficient capital and energy to become very productive. At present there are but two companies engaged in the business. These are the Dole-Brill and the Union Slate companies. The Northfielcl slate is a good clear black which does not fade and is of first class duality. GR\xITE.—While, almost since it became a State, Vermont has been famous for its marble, it has been known as a granite producing State only during the last few years, and now it is almost as widely and favorably known through its granite as through its marble, and I do not think that it is too much to say that in quality, if not in quantity, Vermont is excelled by no Report of State Geologist, 1899-1900, pp. 17-30, figures 1-5. other State or country in the world. Two other granite producing regions, Maine and Massachusetts, furnish a greater quantity, all grades being considered, but of the finest grades of granite, such as are used in monuments, Yermont last year sold more than twice as much as any other State. The greater quantity sold elsewhere goes into paving stone, foundations, etc., for which uses Vermont sells comparatively little, while most of our granite goes into finer work. Vermont also sells more granite in the rough to be worked elsewhere than does any other State. When we consider the fact that our granite deposits are scarcely touched as yet, only a very small part of them having been quarried at all, and that the supply is thus practically unlimited and therefore inexhaustible, and that the demand for Vermont granite is rapidly increasing, we easily understand that a great future awaits this industry. The growth of the business in Barre shows what may happen elsewhere and in many localities, for granite is widely distributed over the State, from Derby to Dummerston, and while much of it is unsalable, much is of the very best quality. No red granite is found in Vermont, but we have all shades of gray and all grades of hardness and texture. The present capital invested and quantity and value of stone produced is very large, but we may confidently expect that it will soon be much larger. The granite industry is much less concentrated in this State than either the marble or slate, and I have found it difficult to get at exact statements respecting it. It appears certain that not less than $1,000,000 is invested in the business. Not less than 3,000 men are employed in quarries and cutting works, and the output in 1901, as given by the United States Geological Survey Report. was $124,828. Nearly all the firms report increasing business, some of them that during the present year, 1902, the sales will be double those of any previous year. Mr. G. I. Finlay of Columbia University has made a special study of the Barre granite region, and it is with great satisfaction that I am able to include Mr. Finlay's valuable paper in this report.
The Granite Area of Barre, Vermont. PLATE IV. GEORGE I. FINLAY. The present study was undertaken by the advice of Professor Kemp, of Columbia University, and pursued under his clirection. The writer must first acknowledge his great indebtedness to him for his kind assistance and encouragement at every point. The field expenses were borne by the department of geology of Columbia University. To the many gentlemen at Barre, Vt., whose quarries were visited, and to their representatives on the ground, the writer desires to express his sense of their courtesy to him, for at no time in his work did they fail to help him as occasion made possible. To Dr. George H. Perkins, State Geologist of Vermont, public acknowledgment is due for his kindly interest in the present paper, and for his generous aid in its completion. Topogra/'hv and surface geology—The city of Barre is situated nearly in the center of the township of that name in Washington county, Vt. Montpelier is six miles distant to the west in the great central valley of the State. By reference to the sketch map of the township (Plate IV)* it will be seen that the drainage is in general toward the pronounced hollow in which the city lies, and along the valley west of it. The railroad follows this general course. On leaving Barre in any other direction one has to climb steep grades to reach the upland, which is fairly even above the valley bottom. The highest point is at Millstone Hill, four miles southeast of Barre. The country presents an immature stage of dissection, with the lesser valleys invariably narrow and steep sided. The relief is not above four or five hundred feet. SCIIIST. [j4JCRAwITE. Sketch Map of VlclnitY of Barre, yt. Scale 1123,000. Scale 1 ifl-125,000.
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