The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-07-21
WHAT TO DO WITH CIRCUIT
GRANITE MANUFACTURERS TRY
ING TO SOLVE PROBLEM OF
DISPOSING OF WASTE.
Journal Reporter Visits Quarries On
Milestone Hill and Makes n Few
Inquiries There's GrOut mt the
Sheds As VOL As tile Qnnrries.

millSiOuc I'LL anu MINUS rev
Inquiries There's GrOut Mt the
Sheds As Well As the Quarries.
One of the problems that confront
the quarryman and the manufacturer
of granite is that of disposing of the
County Court, in which e. r. Fletcher
of Woodbury., was awarded $10,425 for
piece of ground less than an acre i'll
extent, which it was claimed had been
trespassed on by the Woodbury. Gran
lite Company, shows the value of
dumping land and the gravity of the
problem. In order to get a compre-
hensive idea of the situation, a rep
resentative of the Journal recently
visited the quarries at Milestone Hill
at Barre, a most profitable field for
study.
The Barre railroad, which handles
the freight traffic of this region, does
not run passenger trains, except Sat
urday night, but Chief Clerk A. A.
Stebbins of the general offices kindly
gave the writer a map of the road and
directions for making the trip. The
Boutwell,, Milne and Varnum dark
quarries, on the west side of tn. hill,
We're the ones visited and under the
courteous and efficient guidance OF
e. ID. Palmer of the office there, the
entire group of quarries was inspect
ed, as well as the engine rooms and
other subsidiary apparatus.
Huge GrOut Piles.
AS one approaches the summit Of
the hill the first indication he has of
the existenC Of quarries is the grout
piles and G among the pits them
selves, the { ut piles loom TO a
height of from so to 80 feet on eyeCy
hand. The railroad tunnels through
some of them and skirts the base of
others. Apparently the entire efflrts
of the quarry forces are devoted to
the moving of grout. 1t soon becomes
apparent that the problem is a large
one.
Going into one of the pits, which go
down to 125 feet in one instance, the
source of the grout is seen. Gran
lite lies in sheets or strata. These
stand on edge and some of them have
an inclination one way or another.
Between these strata are layers, called
headers which are composed of gran
tie but are discolored by iron oxides
and other matter When a sheet OF
workable stock in uncovered it is cut
UP into large blocks, some of them
nearly a hundred feet square. When
a sheet has been cut up there is an
other header to be taken out and this
is grout. Some of the quarries have
but little grout while others have
large fiaky headers. The moving of
the grout just pays for itself and the
profit comes in the workable stock.
Handling the Grout.
The grout is raised to the surface
by the derricks and in most cases is
placed on cable cars. These cars run
to the top Of inclined trestles and au-
tOmatically dump at the top. These
trestles average about 400 feet in
length and about 60 feet high at the
upper end This is the quickest. and
cheapest way of handling the refuse,
one man being able to serve several
derricks at a small fraction of the
cost of teams, which would require
three men and six horses to a der
rick and do less work in day. In
one or two cases on the hill blonins
or tramways are used, but these are
of value only where there is a long
piece of land available for dumping.
Formerly the grout was all handled
by teams, which was slow, expensive
and required cutting up of the largest
stones.
Some Of the quarries have opened
the pits back to the foot Of the old
grout piles and are now at work NOV
ing these piles, which makes an item
Of dead loss These quarries which
have the land or can buy it, can move
their piles, but one at least Of the
Boutwell,, Milne and Varnum quarries
cannot do either This quarry has a
pile 80 feet high, served with tres
CIRF Valid KInMEYQ