USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol II > Part 22
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One of the chief characteristics of the graphite industry was its slow development. It began about the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, yet in 1916 only about 5,000 tons were produced in the nation. Of this New York contributed about one-fourth, ranking second only to Alabama in size of output. The amount produced within the United States was less than 15 per cent of the supply, 70 per cent being imported from the island of Ceylon alone. This indeed was a poor record after a development of more than sixty years. Now, however, the situation is even worse. No graphite is being mined at all and has not been for several years.
There are several reasons that are needed to explain the slow development and death of the graphite industry in the Adirondacks. In the first place Ceylon and other foreign sources have been able to pro- duce it more cheaply than could be done here. In the second place, the Adirondack properties were disunited and unorganized, a situation which made it possible for buyers of graphite to play one mine against another and thus depress prices to the danger point. If consolidation had taken place here similar to that of the marble industry of Ver- mont, the graphite industry would at least have enjoyed greater lon- gevity. In the third place, the amount of capital necessary to begin
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mining operations was dangerously high. Also the mining and mill- ing of graphite is a highly technical matter. In the words of Alling ("Adirondack Graphite Deposits") : "It demands a knowledge of the nature of the ore, its tenor, the geological condition of the surround- ing area, the precise location of faults, folds, pinches, and swells, how the ore will crush, the size and quality of the flake, of the best, the average run and the poorest ore, how much mica is present, etc. It is necessary to know the possible resources and secure a mill equipment to correspond. There are a great many factors that must be con- sidered before actual operations are undertaken." Needless to say many mine owners neglected one or more of these technical matters. Too often money was wasted on foolish enterprises. Properties changed hands frequently. Bastin observed that in the graphite devel- opment "there is a record of misrepresentation and disappointment that can hardly be equaled in any other branch of mining, and many properties have been notoriously associated with stock manipulators of doubtful character."
The first attempt to mine graphite in the Adirondacks commer- cially was on Chilson (Lead) Hill, near Ticonderoga. During the 1850s these deposits were being worked by a concern which devel- oped into the American Graphite Company. This firm was absorbed in the 188os by the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company of Jersey City, New Jersey. However, the greatest development in the mining of graphite took place in the town of Hague in Warren County. Here the Dixon Company carried on operations on a large scale, and here there grew up around the mines a little settlement called Graphite. This firm also had properties on Lead Hill in the township of Hague, just back of the Trout House. Still other deposits were developed on land owned by William H. Faxon to the south and southwest of the Dixon properties located at Graphite. Here diamond drilling was exten- sively used. The Hague "ore is a quartz schist, somewhat feldspathic, containing about 5 to 7 per cent of graphite and small amounts of biotite and pyrite. It varies from a few feet to 20 feet in thickness as it pinches and swells, but the average would be about 15 feet."* After the ore was taken to a mill for what was known as the concentration process, the resulting concentrates were hauled by motor trucks down the steep grade to Hague village, transferred there to barges which
*Alling, Harold L .: "Adirondack Graphite Deposits."
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carried them to Ticonderoga, and ultimately given final treatment at the mills located at that place. Foreign competition eventually proved to be as disastrous, however, to these extensive deposits as it was to Adirondack graphite in general, and no ore has been mined at these beds for several years, in spite of the fact that millions of tons of ore remain under Hague's mountainous exterior waiting for a more propi- tious era.
Many people have the impression that a large proportion of graphite is manufactured into lead pencils, but this is far from being true. Alling stated in 1917 that only five per cent of the ore was used for this purpose. There are two kinds of graphite: amorphous and crystalline or flake. The amorphous variety, in addition to being used for lead pencils, is used also for inks, paints, dry batteries, electrodes and electrotyping. A large proportion of the crystalline or flake variety is used for crucibles for the production of crucible steels, brasses and similar alloys, but it is also made into stove polish, added to lubricat- ing oils and greases, used dry for lubricating purposes in textile mills where oil would soil the cloth, and employed for many other services.
Limestone has its own peculiar story. First of all there are two separate varieties : crystalline and non-crystalline. The crystalline type is often known as marble, and reference has already been made to it as such in our paragraphs on marble. It occurs in rather inter- esting deposits such as those on Isle LaMotte in Grand Isle County and at Glens Falls in Warren County. The non-crystalline type of limestone comprises a variety of rocks differing as to geological occur- rences, and physical and chemical characters.
Limestone is common to western Vermont and to our New York counties as well. In the Green Mountain State it is prevalent through- out the marble border and beyond, and exists in each of the six west- ern counties. The oldest quarries in Vermont are thought to be those at Highgate and Swanton in Franklin County. Limestone is to be found in each of our five New York counties as well. Saratoga Springs, Hudson Falls, Glens Falls, Willsboro Neck and Plattsburg are a few of the chief sources. It is used for a variety of purposes including building stone, crushed stone, lime, cement, furnace flux, rubble, riprap, flagging, curbing, etc. It exists in a great variety of colors, although the light colored and white types are not abundant.
The limestone used for crushed stone has been of great importance in some sections of New York State, although apparently not in the
(Courtesy Hudson Falls Chamber of Commerce)
VIEW OF HUDSON FALLS AND INDUSTRIAL SECTION
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Champlain Valley. Furnace flux was of importance in this section only near the iron blast furnaces, limestone being quarried for this purpose primarily at West Chazy, Clinton County, and at Port Henry, Essex County. Although for a short time the Glens Falls crystalline limestone was of great importance for ornamental purposes as we have seen, the major uses of limestone were the making of lime and cement (that is, in the Champlain Valley ) .
The amount of lime burned has tended to fluctuate considerably. For example, the State of Vermont produced an amount worth $400,- 000 in 1893; only $147,000 worth in 1896; yet over $300,000 worth in 1899. In 1935 there were only four companies in the State, employ- ing a total of ninety-nine wage earners. The value of lime products was $288,202, while the value added by manufacture was $161,703. In New York State during the same year there were seven establish- ments employing one hundred and thirty-nine workers. They pro- duced goods worth $599,977, to which total they contributed $310,- 446. This was less than the amount produced in 1905, thirty years before ($702,684). Of the New York counties in the Champlain area Warren County has ranked first, followed by Clinton and Wash- ington. By the 188os the industry developed at Glens Falls until the quantity manufactured was exceeded in the United States only at Rockland, Maine, according to one authority.
Next, let us consider cement. In Vermont, the only activity reported for 1935 was the manufacture of concrete products worth $100,647. During the same year in New York, twelve firms employ- ing 1,108 men, manufacturing products worth $6,999,234, were reported in the cement-making field; while in the making of concrete products there were one hundred and seventeen firms, employing 783 men, and turning out products worth $4,801,357. In 1936 in New York State 5,651,412 barrels of cement were manufactured, valued at $8,794,448. The Minerals Yearbook of 1938 rated New York as fourth among all the states of the Union in the manufacture of cement. Of the eleven counties in this area, Warren has been the leader. In the production of Portland Cement, there are ten active plants in New York State and none in Vermont. Of these ten, only one is located in this area and that is at Glens Falls. In the depression year of 1931 it alone sold 480,055 barrels, possessing a value of $508, 11I, while in 1938 production totaled about 800,000 barrels.
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One of the great mineral resources of this section consists of the spring waters that bring life and happiness to a wornout world. These exist or have existed at various places, the most important of which are Saratoga Springs and Ballston Spa in Saratoga County. Their impor- tance has little in common with our other mineral wealth, but rather is of a resort nature. Therefore a discussion of the springs belongs properly to our chapter on resorts. On the other hand, it is well to point out as we face the future that. among all our mineral resources, mineral water stands near the top of the list when we think in terms of future importance.
Because of the fact that Vermont's most valuable mineral is gran- ite and because her fifteen active plants in 1937 produced more granite than any other State in the Union, when measured by value, the casual student of the Champlain Valley might be mystified by a complete omission of this mineral in this chapter. The truth is, however, that very little granite is, or ever has been, produced on either side of the lake. The great granite belt of Vermont is located in the eastern part of the State. with the greatest interests being centered at Barre. Here the first quarry was opened soon after the War of 1812, but as late as 1880 Barre had a population of but 2,060. In the 188os came the great boom period. and by 1890 it was growing fast. Operations were then conducted on a large scale, and the changes taking place around Barre were little short of sensational. In 1937 the total value of Vermont's granite output was $2.511.986.
There are various other mineral deposits in the Champlain Val- ley. but they are relatively unimportant. We should not forget sand- stone and bluestone. In addition there are various clays, such as kaolinite. which is used in the making of porcelain. and clays used primarily for pottery and bricks. Monkton, Addison County, was favored with one of these kaolin deposits.
Considering our eleven counties as a whole we find that no one mineral is dominant throughout the district. On the other hand each county renders or has rendered important contributions in this great industry. From the six Vermont subdivisions of Bennington. Rut- land. Addison. Chittenden. Franklin and Grand Isle have come great quantities of marble, and crystalline limestone, which passes as marble. From Clinton and Essex counties have come vast amounts of iron. Youthful Warren County has contributed limestone products, garnet
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and graphite. Saratoga County stands preeminent in the mineral water field. Although Washington County has produced lime and iron in considerable quantity the main product is, of course, slate. In this field it unites with Rutland County to form the great slate belt. Care should be taken not to underestimate the tremendous importance in this section of the products of our mines. Transportation was of course essential to the larger development of this region; but the mineral industry constituted one of the three main occupations in the Champlain Valley. Its only rivals were lumbering and agriculture.
There has been nothing very consistent about the past development of the mineral frontier. In many townships there were no mines. The benefits of the industry upon such communities were entirely indirect. Perhaps a railroad was built through them to connect the mines of a neighboring town with the world's market. In this way the influence of minerals radiated from certain centers into mineless communities. In other townships, the mining industry shared the spotlight in varying degrees with agriculture and lumbering. In still other communities, min- ing dominated the economic life of the people without pause.
Just as there has been little consistency in the mineral industry in the part it has played in the growth of communities, there has also been considerable variation as to order of sequence among industries. In some townships there were practically no settlers until mineral deposits were discovered. Communities sprang up around the mines, and in some cases vanished when production ceased. In other townships, agriculture and lumbering made great advances before mining even began. On the whole, the major development of the mineral industry did not begin until about the middle of the nineteenth century.
Even after this industry became firmly intrenched there was much variation and inconsistency. For reasons which are not always appar- ent, production figures fluctuated sensationally from one year to the next. Sometimes manufacturing of a given mineral product would cease almost altogether, yet again it would hit the peaks. A dan- gerously sick industry one year would be fully cured in the next; a healthy industry would almost collapse. Many reasons explain these reversals and changes. In some cases new inventions or new methods of production changed the entire outlook. In other cases mineral beds elsewhere were discovered, or were found more suitable for the newer methods. The death of the graphite industry was primarily caused
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by foreign competition. Sometimes wasteful production methods were used which rapidly exhausted deposits. Then again, in the case of Glens Falls marble, we note that a reversal was caused by the greed of operators who, by their desire for huge profits, indirectly started a fad for foreign products.
Great changes have taken place in the Champlain Valley since the beginning of the mining industry. The casual student of the present day is aware of only two centers of iron ore production-Lyon Moun- tain and Mineville. In early days, however, many of the townships of Clinton and Essex counties had their own forges. Then the iron industry was not centralized, and throughout the Adirondacks forges seemed to exist everywhere. The mining industry has also played an important part in the growth of cities. As we have already seen, the growth of Burlington was based on lumber, but Rutland and the surrounding communities swept to fame on marble. Glens Falls and Plattsburgh owe much to both lumber and minerals. Saratoga Springs owes its growth to its mineral waters. Then there are a number of smaller communities, such as Port Henry, whose development in large measure was based on the products from under the soil.
The entire mining industry is so subject to sudden changes in fortune, for reasons already explained, that anyone is not safe in pre- dicting the future. Too many "ifs" complicate the answer. In any case our mineral resources are far from exhaustion, the deposits in all fields being sufficient to supply needs for a fairly unlimited period. Although the present trend in the Champlain Valley is toward increas- ing emphasis on the resort business, the prosperity of the mineral industry is essential to the welfare of our citizens. Great numbers of people benefit directly from the mines, while all of us benefit indirectly in one way or another. In the future, as in the past, it is to be hoped that from within the earth there will continue to pour forth minerals in large quantities, forming one of the major ingredients of our economic prosperity. The recent depression was seriously felt in this industry, although in general improvement is now definitely in progress. Those mines seem weakest that are least centralized. The tendency here is to lower prices under competitors in order to make any sales. This practice results in time in a general collapse of price and wage struc- tures. This is not the fault of individual operators, but is primarily caused by lack of centralized ownership or control. A similar situa-
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tion existed in the marble industry before Proctor stepped in to organize it in the nineteenth century. It exists at present in the slate belt.
Although the major mineral wealth on the Vermont side of the Champlain Valley is not the same as that on the western side of the lake and to the south, minerals have been of tremendous importance to the people of both States. As a rule the development of the mines was more or less contemporary, and many of the problems were of a sim- ilar nature. Descriptive of the mineral unity of the two States is the slate belt. Although the New York slate has a different geological his- tory than that of Vermont, the two belts are just across the State line from each other. The interests of the citizens of Granville are similar to those of the residents of Fair Haven. They have their common problems and their common hopes. The two sets of slate quarries seem to clasp hands across the imaginary line, separating New York from Vermont, in token of economic unitv.
CHAPTER XV
Agriculture
In all civilized modes of life the practice of agriculture is essen- tial for sustenance and fundamental in any economic order. Men can live without lumber, minerals and improvements in transportation, but cannot exist without food and drink. In the Champlain Valley this has been as true as elsewhere. Even though early agriculture here was of the sustenance variety, with few products grown for commerce, and even though it was at first dwarfed by the lumber era, from the point of view of settlement and survival this was the most important of all occupations. The pioneer's standard of living varied in pro- portion to what he raised. Later the Champlain Valley became inter- ested in the growth of agricultural products for commercial purposes, when improvements in transportation facilities arrived, and grew rap- idly to be an important food reservoir. From decade to decade great changes took place not only in farming methods but particularly in types of crops grown or varieties of live stock raised; but regardless of the kind of agriculture that was peculiar to any given era, this section has always been and still remains an important farm area. In my estimation the agricultural development of the Champlain Val- ley has generally been underrated, whether we consider the Vermont side or the New York shore. Taking the two States as entities, this is also true. While Vermont stands high in the public's conscious- ness as an agricultural State, many of its past achievements, either in production or in technical improvements, have not been awarded their just degree of emphasis in our economic history. As for the Empire State, New York's growth financially and industrially has had the unfortunate effect of overshadowing its agricultural devel- opment. For example, few people probably realize that for many years this State led all others in the importance of its agriculture,
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and that as late as 1890 it was surpassed only by Illinois. All of our six Vermont counties have been of considerable importance in the realm of agriculture. Among our New York counties there is no such unanimity. Famed as Essex and Warren may have been for their rocks and rills, their woods and templed hills, they are not adapted to any but sustenance agriculture, except in comparatively limited regions such as the narrow border between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. The other three counties of Clinton, Saratoga and Washington have been of exceptional importance agriculturally, however.
To a startling degree, the early white settlers copied the farming methods and crops of the red men. The most striking contrast was that among the savages the labor in the fields was done by squaws, whereas among the whites, at least the Yankee contingent, practically all of this type of work was done by the men, except at harvest time. Because of the fact that the influence of Indian agriculture was so great, it becomes essential to consider it in some detail, even though no permanent Indian villages ever existed in the Champlain Valley.
The chief Indian foods-corn, pumpkins and beans-originally came from Mexico and Peru. Of these, the most important was, of course, corn. The Iroquois had two varieties of Indian corn: white dent and white flint; while they also may have had sweet corn. In late summer, corn was roasted. Later it was made into hominy and coarse meal. The white flint variety was generally used for hominy, which was made by soaking the shelled corn in lye until hulls could be removed. For meal either hulled or unhulled corn was pounded in a stone or wooden mortar. After this process, the meal was used as plain mush mixed with meat, dressed with oil or baked as unleav- ened bread. Charred corn was also popular and could be preserved for several years. "To char, green corn well along in the milky stage was set up on end in a row before a long fire. Roasting proceeded until the moisture was dried up in the kernels. The corn was then shelled and further dried in the sun. So diminished in bulk and weight, the product was easily stored or transported. Cached in earthen pits it was the chief recourse against the evil arrows of famine which so often struck the Indians. Uncooked, cooked or pounded fine and mixed with maple sugar, the charred corn of the Iroquois was a nutritious and appetizing dish."* One common use of corn was in the making of
*Hedrick : "History of Agriculture in the State of New York."
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succotash. The Indian had various recipes but the most popular one consisted of a combination of corn, beans, squash, and well-chopped fat dog meat. In spite of this utilization of dogs, however, the red men were literally overrun with these animals.
Usually beans were planted in the hill with the corn, and the vines then could climb the cornstalks. Pumpkins and squashes were also grown in the cornfield, and were planted together in hills between the corn and beans. The pumpkins grown by the red men were of the so-called pie variety, and their squashes were warty yellow summer crooknecks and other summer types. Whether they raised winter squashes we cannot be certain. Tobacco for Indian pipes was one of the most important crops. They used the sunflower for varied pur- poses. It was made into oil; the seeds were eaten uncooked, roasted, and mixed with corn or beans in soups; while the dried leaves were used to adulterate tobacco or else serve as a substitute for it. The potato limped along fully three centuries after corn as an important field crop. The Jerusalem artichoke grew wild in some sections and the Indians also cultivated that occasionally. Teas they made from leaves, berries and herbs, while they also used the seeds of the Ken- tucky coffee tree. They had no distilled liquor except a weak beer from fermented maple sap, from which also they made vinegar. Ber- ries and fruits were dried for winter use. The only fruit they culti- vated was probably a small black "Canada plum," which they made into prunes. The savages also cultivated ground nuts. Surplus meat was dried, smoked or frozen. It was also cut fine, mixed with berries or vegetable foods, together with deer tallow or bear grease, to form pemmican. Indians, in addition, gave maple sugar to the white man.
Sometimes clam shells and flints were made into crude hoes. Indi- an crops were well cared for and few weeds were allowed to grow. The scarecrow was an invention of the red man as was also the husking peg. As a rule he was troubled with few pests, for most of our mod- ern diseases and insects are not native. When his crops were poor or besieged with insects, he blamed angry gods or a revengeful enemy. The most troublesome pest was the cutworm. This was supposed to do its devastating work in the light of the full moon. The standard cure was for a squaw to completely disrobe and, beneath the light of the moon, to drag the garments she had worn during the day three times around the boundaries of the garden patch. Perhaps she
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believed in the same psychology as did those who marched around Jericho; but she probably did not make as much noise.
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