The agate stone is exported as it is found in the Catalan hills, department of Salto, and there exists in Montevideo an agent of the house established in that department, where are sold the stones worked out into art objects.
In La Paz, near Montevideo, there exist quarries of red and blue granite, some beautiful pieces of which are employed as columns in some important buildings.
Stone is abundant in the Republic. Everywhere in Cerro, La Paz, Sauce, Colonia and other places they continually open new quarries which permit a considerable exportation for the works undertaken in Buenos Ayres and La Plata.
The Colonia quarries alone employ over two thousand workmen.
Vegetation.
The territory does not only count with its native trees the wood of which is employed in the industries and the rural economy; but all over its fertile soil do grow, reproducing themselves, and perfectly accustomed to the climate, nearly all the trees of the other regions.
Among the native trees there are the nandubay, that has the property of petrifying itself under the ground, the urunday, the lapacho, the viraro, the coronilla, the espinillo, quebracho, tala, araza, the carob-tree, the black laurel, the timbo, guaviyu, copal, the white, red, brown and yellow willow, the mataojo, paraiso, the wild acacia, the ceibo and many others, the wood of which may be employed for making all kinds of casks and buildings, and also for burning.
"The riches of the forests in this country," says Dr. Ordonana, perpetual secretary to the Rural Association, "belong to two distinct categories. The first one extends itself along the banks of the rivers and rivulets of the interior of the Republic, and the other is a consequence of the sediments, ground and sands brought down by the rivers that form the Plate, which, stopped by the banks of low Uruguay, give birth to plants like those described by clever botanists as Azara and Bomplan, as belonging to the regions of the Pilcomayo, Parana and Paraguay.
"The trees are generally represented by a great many out of which no wood can be made, and small shrubs that give fruits, used in other times by the natives, gums and resins, stuffs used for weaving and dyeing, and a great many twining plants, among which there are the hisipo, of yellow flowers, and also the ilex-mate.
"None of the plants we mention here have been considered, until now, worth being scientifically cultivated, although our Society has claimed for it many times, because, neither private persons nor private congregations, without the help of the government, can afford the establishment and maintenance of experimental farms, which are the true guides for studies and observations.