New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 Part 29

GROUP ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN

_Products of the Cultivation of Forests_

Model sportsman's camp and outfit. Gold medal Exhibit of woods, by-products, etc. Grand prize William F. Fox, for services on sportsman's camp exhibit. Silver medal

GROUP ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE

_Products of Hunting_

Collective exhibit of animals and birds. Gold medal Arthur B. Strough, for services on game and sporting exhibit.

Silver medal

GROUP ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO

_Fis.h.i.+ng Equipment and Products_

Collective exhibit of fish. Grand prize John D. Whish, for making collection of fish. Silver medal

A summary of the awards is as follows: Three grand prizes Three gold medals Six silver medals

The exhibit in this department differed somewhat from the State exhibits in other departments in that, with the exception of a very few articles, which were loaned by private parties to complete or supplement the collections, the showing was exclusively a State exhibit.

SOME SURPRISING FACTS

The exhibit as a whole was immensely popular from the very first day.

The people visiting the Exposition were largely from the southern and middle western states, and seemed very generally to believe that New York's forests, fish and game has pa.s.sed away with the advance of civilization. Most of them were greatly surprised to learn that one-fourth of the State is wild land, which will in all probability always be devoted largely to forests, and that the State has so many wild deer that 6,000 of them are killed annually without any apparent decrease of the number.

The sportsman's camp served the purpose of advertising the great Adirondack region as a summer resort, and a great many visitors expressed their intention of visiting that locality in the near future.

Probably one of the best features of the exhibit was the work shown by the Commission in progressive forestry. This State being in the van of the forestry movement was looked to to point out the path of professional forestry, and if no other award had been made than the grand prize by the scientific jury that served in that Department, we would feel as though our efforts has been appreciated and that our labors had not been in vain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IGOROTE VILLAGE, PHILIPPINE RESERVATION]

CHAPTER XIV

Mines and Metallurgy Exhibit and Schedule of Awards

MINES AND METALLURGY EXHIBIT By H. H. HINDSHAW Special Agent of the State Museum

[Ill.u.s.tration]

As in previous expositions at which the State of New York has been an exhibitor, the scientific exhibits were made through the organization of the State Museum. Dr. F. J. H. Merrill, the director of the museum, a.s.signed to the writer the duty of preparing the exhibit to be made under his direction. The available time and money entered largely into the settlement of the question of what form the exhibit should take.

SCOPE OF EXHIBIT

It was thought best to confine the scope of the main exhibit to the technologic and commercial aspects of geology and mineralogy. A judicious selection of materials made to show the mineral wealth of the State was considered more desirable than to make merely a large display.

Many of the materials exhibited were taken from the State Museum collections, supplemented where necessary by such additions as could be obtained within the required time.

The benefit derived by the State from such exhibits is often much more apparent than that which is to be derived by the individual exhibitors, and on this account the Commission is particularly indebted to those firms and individuals which went to considerable expense in preparing exhibits along lines which were intended more to represent all phases of an industry rather than to show the products of a single firm.

Those deserving especial mention in this connection are The Solvay Process Company, of Syracuse; The H. H. Mathews Consolidated Slate Company, of Boston; the Helderberg Cement Company, of Howes Cave; The Hudson River Bluestone Company, of New York; the Medina Sandstone Company, of New York, and the United States Gypsum Company, of Chicago.

INSTALLATION

The cases used were taken from the museum, and suitable stands for the building stone and other exhibits were constructed in Albany. On account of the weight of the specimens exhibited the floor had to be strengthened. This work, as well as the building of platforms and part.i.tions, was done under contract by Messrs. Caldwell and Drake.

The exhibits of mineral resources may be divided into the metallic and non-metallic groups.

IRON

In the first division in our State, iron is by far the most important and probably the one with which the people of the State are least acquainted. A few years ago New York stood near the head of the iron producing states. The depression in the iron industries, commencing about 1888, and the discovery about that time of the seemingly inexhaustible deposits of rich ores in the Lake Superior region, however, resulted in shutting down nearly all of our mines. For the last few years little attention has been paid to them, and they seem to have been popularly supposed to have been worked out. The Exposition gave an opportunity of showing this supposition to be incorrect, and recent investigations show that the deposits are of much greater extent and value than was known in the eighties. With but one or two exceptions none of the mines then worked are exhausted, and immense bodies of valuable ore have not been touched. Most of the non-mining localities were represented by specimens from the museum collections. Messrs.

Witherbee, Sherman & Company exhibited a series of ores and concentrates from Mineville, the Arnold Mining Company, magnet.i.tes and mart.i.te from Arnold Hill, and the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company, specimens from Lyon Mountain.

MAGNEt.i.tE

A series of magnet.i.te and a.s.sociated rocks from the Tilly Foster and other mines were supplemented by a model of the Tilly Foster mine which was loaned to the museum for this purpose by the Columbia School of Mines.

HEMAt.i.tES

The St. Lawrence and Jefferson county hemat.i.tes were represented by large specimens of ore and by a series of a.s.sociated rocks and minerals, including some beautiful specimens of millerite, chalcedite, etc. These hemat.i.tes are mined in a belt about thirty miles long reaching from Philadelphia, Jefferson county, into Hermon, St. Lawrence county. They are known as the Antwerp red hemat.i.tes, and, being very easily smelted, are mixed with more refractory ores.

The Clinton or fossil ores extend in a belt across the central part of the State and are mined in the vicinity of Clinton, Oneida county, and in Ontario and Wayne counties.

The limonites shown from Dutchess and Columbia counties included some fine specimens of stalact.i.tic ore.

Carbonate ores were shown from Columbia and Ulster counties, where there are extensive deposits on both sides of the Hudson river.

MAGNETIC SEPARATOR

A feature of the iron ore exhibit was a magnetic separator supplied by the Wetherill Separator Company, of New York. This was kept at work on the magnet.i.te ores from Mineville, and was of great interest not only in showing the method of concentrating the magnetic ore, but also in saving the phosphorus which occurs in the form of the mineral apat.i.te and which is of considerable value in the manufacture of fertilizers. A large quant.i.ty of ore was donated for this purpose by Messrs. Witherbee, Sherman & Company.

LEAD