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 partitions, 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, magnetites and martite from Arnold Hill, and the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company, specimens from Lyon Mountain. MAGNETITE A series of magnetite and associated 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. HEMATITES