The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-09-07
VERMONT LEADS
IN GRANITE y
AND MARBLE
The Two Products Worth
Nearly Six Million Dol
lars to State
(Our Washington Correspondent

(Our Washington Correspondent
Vcrmonters do not need to be
told that their State produces
more marble and more granite
than any other State in the union,
but even with this knowledge firm
ly implanted they may not be
averse to refreshing their memory
as to the figures by taking leaf
out Of the notebook Of the Gov
eminent statisticians.
Nearly onc-half Of all the
marble quarried in the United
States is taken out Of the hills Of
Vermont, according to the Four
teenth Census of Mines and Quar-
ries, summary of which has just
come from the Government press.
To be automatically accurate,
the tables credit Vermont with
furnishing forty-eight per cent of
that product which has made Rat
land County and indeed the Green
Mountain commonwealth famous
the world over. Tennessee marble
comes next to the Vermont com
modify in point of quantity, but
there is a wide divergence in the
amount Of the output Of the two
states, Tennessee producing but
one-half as much as Vermont, or
PAT per cent of al the marble
quarricd in the country.
The statistics as to the values of
the product follow closely the
same ratio as to the quantity, for
Veromnt's marble quar1ies brought
forth in 1910, the year for which
the census was taken, a total of
$2,108,872, while the value of the
Tennessee output was $1,088,131.
The superior value Of the Green
Mountain product is all the more
noteworthy when 1t is considered
that the number of enterprises in
the two states engaged in the
the same, namely, fifteen for Yer
mont and thirteen for Tennessee,
with about the same number of
wage earners on the average, re-
spectively, $40 and $40,
Stored in the Vermont hills,
"rock-ribbed and ancient as the
sun, lies another source Of wealth
namely, granite, which Welded
total value of So, 563734 for the
year under consideration by the
census sharps. That sum repre-
sents nineteen and one-half per
cent of the total value Of the
granite quarried that year in the
United States. Twenty en-
terprises produced this output with
the wage ealners numbering 1,0G2.
New Hampshire's claim to the
title of "Granite State" is not bas-
ed upon its achievements in the
granite industry, for it is fifth in
the list of states enumerated as
producing that stone, with total
output valued at $1,427, 979. The
Bay State comes NEXT to Vermont
in respect to its granite production
the value of its product being
2,405,165. Maine gives seven and
One-tenth per cent of the granite
IN 1919, while the other granite
producing states listed are North
Carolina, Wisconsin, and Mmneso-
Ia.
But one state outstrips Vermont
in its production of still another
valuable quarry content, namely,
slate, with Pennsylvania leading in
the contribution Of 4G.3 per cent
OF all the slate Quarried in the
land. Vermont's output of slate j
thirty-six per cent Of the total,
and it is valued at $2,O57,388.
Thus Vermont's quarries of
marble, granite. land slate in the
year 1919 brought forth products
whose grand total was $7,722, 994,
which is not 50 bad as q "side line
for a state generally referred to as
agricultural"
HENRY M. BARRY.