The Third Part of the Prosperity of Germany

I could not omit revealing this artifice for the benefit of the Fatherland, and I shall explain it clearly in this place.

Therefore, regarding the stones that are mentioned here, their supply is so abundant in most places that they even constitute entire mountains. They are similar in substance to soft and tender chalk, whitish, ash-colored, or reddish in color, and they can easily be pulverized and formed into particles and shapes of all kinds, whence their use is frequent in constructing buildings, for making various things from them, whether we look at the corners of buildings, or doors, windows, stairs, or other external ornaments. As long as they still adhere to the mountain and are not exposed to the air, they have a sufficiently considerable hardness, and they retain the same always when they are used for buildings and are placed in those locations that are either entirely and at all times dry, or conversely, moist. But if they are sometimes dry and sometimes again moist, and always exposed to the air, they easily contract softness, and every year a small portion about the thickness of the back of a knife, like flour, is separated, so that they diminish every year, and thus are by no means suitable for constructing stable buildings. Stone-cutters know how to distinguish these stones from others with the easiest task, and they do not willingly use them when a supply of others is available. In these, just as in the stones that constitute lime, a proof