Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1913-05-15
4 MILLION THOUSAND BR|CKS.-.DO YOU GET
 THAT
LOWER HUDSON RIVER REGION DESCRIBED BY THE U. S.
 BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

Special to the Yuma Daily Examiner)
 WASHINGTON, D. C., May 12.- It is difficult to realize the enormous quantities of brick used annually i'll Greater New York. During 1912 the consumption was over 100000 thou sand. The principal source of this vast quantity is the Hundson River region, which extends along both sides of the river from New York City to Cohoes and embraces ten counties, nine in New York and one in New Jersey. Other sources of supply are the Raritan River region of New ter | sey and the Connecticut region.
 The year 1912 was one of unusual | interest in the Hudson River region. | It opened with an increasing demand for brick. and the price of common brick was $7 a thousand, compared with $4.25 in 1911. For several years | the use of cement or concrete in con struction appeared to be displacing the | brick in some extent, but owing to the strong back to the brick" movement this year, 1912 saw in the. New York market change favoring brick as the best building material for many pTr- poses. Influences that have cOntribu- | ted to this change are the failure ois some concrete buildings, the advertis- ing campaign carried on by the brick makers, and the improved quality of the Hudson River brick. The average price was the highest since 1906.
 The marketed product in 1912 was larger than that of 1911 and would probably have been still greater but for the scarcity of labor, especially at Haverstraw, and the strike among the brickmakers in the Newburgh district. The strike, however, was of short dura- 1 tion, but the scarcity of labor drawn away by the large construction enter prises, such as the Catskill aqueduct, railroad extensions, and subway op- erations, was a serious drawback to the Hudson River brickmakers in 1912
 This condition was so serious that the operators resorted to night work and rainy-day work in loading barges and
 imported laborers from the South.
 An important development during
 the year was large increase in the
 use of Raritan River brick in New York City, which has for some years l been drawing on the Raritan River
 region. In 1912 the demand for this
 brick was very much greater than ever before
 On the whole, the year may be con
 sidered one of prosperity. The de- mand was good, prices were high, the
 mild weather toward the end of the
 year permitted shipments to it's very close, and while the marketed product
 was not the largest recorded, it was considerably larger than that of 1911 The statistics gathered by Jefferson
 Middleton, of the United States Geo.
 logical Survey, show that the number of brick marketed in the Hudson Riv
 CT region in 1912 was 1,019,259, ,0O0
 valued at $5,S5O,77O, or $574 per thou sand compared with 926,072,000 brick in 1911, valued at $4,717,633, or $5.09 per thousand. This was an increase in 1912 of 93,1S7,O brick and of $1,- 133,137 in value The number, of op- erating firms reporting in 1912 was 122. AS in other branches of the clay
 working industry, the number of active | firms reporting is not equivalent to the number of yards, for many firms | have more than one yard