The direction of maximum expansion during strain relaxation of the Tully Limestone at Ludlowville, New York, is oriented about NO4 E and thus is within a couple of degrees of the strike of both set Ia cross-fold joints and the compression direction indicated by the teeth of tectonic stylolites. These joints and stylolites are members of a suite of structures accomodating approximately 9% layer-parallel shortening during the main phrase of the Alleghanian Mountains. Because of the parallelism of the maximum expansion with the main phase Alleghanian compression and because our measurements were made in joint-bounded blocks, we suggest that the expansion represents the relief of a residual stress locked into the Tully Limestone during the Alleghanian Orogeny. The magnitude of the strain relaxation indicates that the residual differential stress was 14 MPa. Using a flow law for pressure solution, we infer that the Tully Limestone deformed at a strain rate of abou 3¿10-15 s-1, and thus the layer-parallel shortening observed in the Tully Limestone may have required an aggregate deformation interval of only 1 m.y.