"Sixteenth Annual Report of the
United States Geological Survey,
Part IV.-Mineral Resources of the United States,
1894, Nonmetallic Products."
Excerpts from the chapter on "Stone," by William C. Day.
(Click here if you wish to read the entire chapter on "Stone.")
The Maine Granite Industry in the Mid-1890s
Maine.-This State stands second among the granite-producing States in the value of its output. This has increased from $1,274,954 in 1893 to $1,551,036 in 1894. While the manufacture of paving blocks for use in the largest cities along the Atlantic coast has always been an important feature of the granite industry in Maine, it has become somewhat more so during the past year. In the census year 1889, the value of the paving-block product was 37 per cent of the whole, but in the year just past it was 45.8 per cent. The most productive counties are Hancock, Knox, Franklin, Waldo, Washington, Kennebec, and York; smaller amounts are quarried in Lincoln, Somerset, Penobscot, Androscoggin, and Oxford. Many small quarries have been temporarily abandoned, while others have been sold out to larger concerns. An improvement in the industry in this State is looked for during 1895.
The Maine Slate Industry in the Mid-1890s
Maine.-Slate production in Maine increased from a total valuation of $139,200 in 1893 to $146,838 in 1894. Of the total value in the latter year, $123,937 represents the value of 24,690 squares of roofing slate, while the remainder, $22,901, is the value of milled stock, the production of which is on the increase. The entire output comes from quarries in Piscataquis County.
The Maine Limestone Industry in the Mid-1890s
Maine.-All of the limestone quarried in Maine is converted into lime. The value of the lime output in 1894 was $810,089. This figure is lower than it has been for several years previous. Many complaints relative to business depression were made by the lime producers. The product comes mainly from Knox County, but smaller quantities are produced in Waldo and Penobscot counties.
The stone is almost inexhaustible in quantity and is admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is used. Operations of quarrying consist simply in blasting by means of dynamite, which breaks the stone up at once into sizes suitable for use in the kilns. It is then hoisted out by means of improved cables and machinery and sent directly to the limekilns, which are favorably situated for transportation by water. The stone is partially crystalline, but very coarse-grained. Fine crystals of calcite are very numerous, and gypsum also occurs. The operations at the quarries near Rockland are all below the surface of the ground. The fuel used in the kilns is entirely wood, which is imported from Canada. The stone produced for burning into lime is not measured as such, but is measured only by the quantity of lime produced from it, so that in speaking of the amount of stone quarried the producers name the amount of lime obtained from it, and the unit of measurement is a bushel or barrel of lime. The lime produced at Rockland is of fine character and is the standard lime of New York City, to which it is shipped in enormous quantities. Boston also forms an important market for the product.
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