The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-12-21
In Granite Output For the Year
l91O-.-CenSus Bureau Report
FORMERS TOTAL $2,694,474.
Vermont Has Advanced to This Position
of Supremacy in New England From
Lowest Position in 1880, When
Output Was Only Sso,67s.

"The GRANTEES of Connecticut lust
off the government printing Office press,
completes series of bulletins OF the
4 United States geological survey on the
GRANTEES of the New England states.
The magnitude of the granite indus.
try Of New England lends special in
terest and Importance to these publica-
tions, which describe not only the geo.
logic origin of the GRANTEES and their
distribution, but also the economic
| phases of the industry New England
granite in the form of statuary, monu-
inents, and structures is TO be found
] in almost every portion of the Union
and even in foreign countries. In near
| ly all the eastern states, in such dis
tant cities as NicksbuTg, Spokane, and
I San Francisco, in Montreal, and in Cuba
or permanent construction work.
Although the GRANTEES are by no means
the oldest rocks, geologically, they fur
nish by far the hardest and -sost endur-
ing construction stone, varying greatly,
! however, among themselves Some gran
( ties crush under a pressure Of $1,000
pounds to the square inch, others with
stand over 10000 pounds. The gran
ties are of plutonie origin, resulting from
the cooling Of molten rock matter
the magma forced upward from the
earth's interior. This magma previous
to intrusion existed as a fused mass,
heavily charged with gases and there
fore under terrific pressure. Injected
upward by this pressure through and
among the older rocks it changed from
fused and liquid state to one of
Elasticity, finally solidifying and COM
bining in some places with these older
rocks and in these places forming gran
itie rocks such as the gneisses
GRANTEES Of Many Kinds and Colors.
Over much Of New England, as the
product Of these profound disturbances
in early geologic time, there are many
deposits Of granite and granite rock,
suitable for wide range Of economic pur-
poses, from statue carving to road build
/ ing. The colors of .he rocks are many
black, white, red, purple, pink, and
yellow. Those useful and beautiful
rocks have been the subject OF special
study By the United States geological
survey and the resulting bulletins cover
In detail all the quarTies Of the New
England states The belief OF the au-
thors Of the Connecticut bulletin, geo.
logists T Nelson Dale and Herbert f.
Gregory. il that at the time Of the for
nation OF the granite New England
was covered with high mountains, sew
eral thousand feet above the land of
to-day. Professor Gregory says: 1--WE
MAY be reasonably sure therefore that
mountains OF folded strata once oceu-
pied Connecticut and that the gran
ties and gneisses and chists which we
see are but the stumps Of lofty land
MASSES rivalng the Alps in height and
ruggedness.
Thousands of Feet of Rock Worn Away
The great cap Of everything rock into
which the GRANTEES were intruded has
since been largely removed by erosion,
SO that the granite, is now exposed in
many places. Some conception of the
age of these rocks may be gathered from
the statement of the geological survey
that the present rate of erosion in New
England is less than one inch in a thous-
and years. A good example of the REM
nant Of this Gaping can be seen at
the Waldoborro quarry in Maine The
presence Of this great cover, which pre-
vented the cooling Of the magma. per-
mitted the formation Of the granite
Had the molten masses been forced
to the surface and exposed to the air,
they would have cooled so quickly that
the slow process Of capitalization
would have been arrested by the sudden
passage of the material into the solid |
state and dense glass similar to the
obsidian cliffs in the Yellowstone park !
would have resulted. Instead, the mol
ton masses. forced upward by great pres
sure against a Gaping OF enormous
weight cooled and solidifed slowly |
enough to permit complete crystalliza-
ton Of the liquid or plastic matter, al
lowing the constituent molecules TO ar
range themselves in the orderly man
ner which the microscope reveals in /
the granite The heat of this molten |
mass must have been very great, as |
it takes 1900 degrees to $500 degrees
f. to melt granite. GRANTEES are about |
2.66 times as heavy as water and
cubic foot of average granite rock
weighs 1866 pounds.
Granite Quarrying Prospectus Indus
try.
The granite industry of the New Eng
land states has had healthy growth |
and has long been ccf considerable inn
portance The following figures show /
the general increase in production by /
states since 1889, intermediate years,
however, showing considerable fuctua-
tions.
Production of Granite in the Northeast
ern States.