The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1910-03-30

"An Important Venture
Considerable interest is being taken
By granite merchants Ia Aberdeen ~
the venture Of the Douglas Granite com.
pany in bringing a part cargo Of Ameri-
can granite % the city. The cargo, which
consists Of about 850 tons Of granite
blocks, hes been brought over as an az
pertinent The difficulties IN The way are
still great. as the cost Of Quarryin1 IA
the United States f. extremely high com
pared with similar work ~ this country
II IS welI.known fact that tile work
men there obtained very much higher
wages than ii this country. Tie cost
eli transport Is also 8 very serious item
and IL iuay yet be found That IL has
not been possible 70 overcome those diff
eulties but the promoters are hopeful Of
ultimate success The partners Of the
Douglas Granite company are Mr. Percy
&c. Webb London and AIr WI Hamilton
Bueh5n. Aberdeen. AR Webb who has
been in the marble and granite business
fer twenty-five years, has always been
interested IL the question, and when the
proposal to bring American granite to
aberdeen was put before him By Mr..
RHchan he readily agreed. It Is some
fifteen OF twenty years since au attempt
was made to introduce American grants
To the Aberdeen trade, but then fl was
found that BE cost was TOO great Mr.
Webb Is now confident, however. thnt
there win BE a demand for the american
granite and points out that tile trade
Is suffering badly from tie scarcity of
good Grey stone for polished work 5e
states that ell the foreign granite com
ing to this country Is brought because
there & q demand for III as q variation
from the native stones, and on account
Of special beauties in color The quarries
from which The company have taken the
granite are In the United States and the
property covered BY the granite bed ex-
tends to about 200 acres So far. the
supply taken has been Of excellent quail
iIv, Two faces Of the quarry have been
developed. and one II being worked az
present That face runs to about 400
feet long. The depth Of the bed which
IS at present being worked is Is feet
but IL Is sometimes worked To the depth
III 20 or rs feet Photographs taken 81
the quarry show the remarkable evenness
Of the granite, and it is pointed out that
a block Of almost any size could be taken
ont Of the bed The explosive used Is
black powder Along the face naW eranes
worked by steam have recently been put
down These cranes have been built
with wooden masts and booms, wood
baina found more satisfactory than steel
ia TIA working "A good deal 81 colored
labor e employed IN tile quaTging Of
the granite The stone, which Is Of very
fine and even grain Is stated to be al
mifably suited for carving and II Isl
considered that tie tool work win be
done more eheaply than Is the case with
other GRANTEES. The stone is also an ex
cellent polishing one, An important mat.
ter in that connection is that even if
the granite cost more to bring To this
country, the cost Of working viii prob
ably Be found to be cheaper. # the
experiment proves q success the COM
pany Viii have carao Of 1000 tonsI
ready for shipment and from the extent
81 the quarries they VIII also be able
Is supply almost any demand there is
likely to be for the granite"