From statistics published, it seems the annual product of salt in this country aggregates 20,000,000 bushels. The States where it is principally produced are West Virginia first, New York sec ond, and Michigan third. The capital invested in this manufac ture in America is computed to amount to $7,000,000, over 3,000 .hands being employed in the 23 States and Territories that pro duce salt. It may' be news to our readers to learn, as stated by the American Cultivator, that the famous Onondaga salines in New York State, situated in the towns of Syracuse, Salina and Geddes, belong to the State, which supplies the brine to manufacture and receives a royalty of one cent a bushel. They have been worked since 1790, but were discovered in 1654, by French Jesuits, who were prosecuting their perilous missions in the country of the On ondagas and the Iroquois. Father Lallemont is believed to have been the first to mention them. In 1862 the production reached a maximum of 9,053,874 bushels ; since that year the average has been about 8,000,000 bushels. The productive springs are, in a great part, found in the marshy lands which surround Onondaga Lake. Wells are sunk or bored in the low lands around the lake, from 200 to 300 feet, and from these the salt water is forced up by pumps into the reservoir, from which the evaporating works are supplied. The brine is of variable strength in the wells, and from 30 to 45 gallons are required for a bushel of dry salt weigh ing 56 pounds. The salines in the valley of the Great Kanawha, in West Virginia, are also very important, yielding about half as much as the Onondaga salines. The brines of the Onondaga wells contain about one-half of one per cent. of sulphate of lime, a very small percentage of the chloride of calcium and magnesium, mere traces of carbonic acid and oxide of iron, and from 16 to 17 per cent. of salt.
Notwithstanding this large home manufacture of salt, we import one-half the amount consumed by our people annually. Salt has sold away up to $12 per bushel, and could we not import sufficient to supply the deficiency in our home production, great distress would prevail. Salt is widely distributed over the globe, the principal rock salt mines, however, being those of Wieliezka, in Galica, at Hall, on the Tyrol, and along the mountain ranges of Austria. In England it is found in the region of Cheshire, and in Russia in the Government of Perm. The noted salt springs
are in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire, England, which country, by the way, manufactures more salt than any other. The salt known commercially as Liverpool salt, is obtained from wells 200 to 250 feet in depth in Cheshire. 5,000,000 tons are now produced annually in Europe. In China there are remarkable salt wells, and the West India Islands produce much salt. Turk's Island was at one time our main supply, and considerable salt coming from other islands is now called by that name. In 1879 we exported salt valued at $20,089 against $16,275 in 1878. Our imports are probably in the vicinity of 20,000,000 bushels.
We annually consume 40,000,000 bushels, and the consumption is increasing rather than diminishing. One reason for this is its increased use in the export provision business. For this purpose Turk's Island salt is regarded as the best. The import duty on salt is three cents per bushel in bulk, or when not in bulk, twelve cents per 100 pounds. It costs but six cents per bushel to manu facture Onondaga salt. Salt manufactured in the United States is much better than that made in Spain or the Azores, which has a sharpness of taste not at all agreeable. The kinds of salt sold in this market are Ashton's Liverpool fine, Higgins' Phcenix, Deakins', Washington's, Enon's, Marshall's and Worthington's, all fine, and Liverpool ground, besides the coarse kinds, in rock and otherwise, from Turk's Island, the Mediterranean, Bonair, Inagua, Curacoa, Lisbon and Cadiz.
Salt has always been the synonym for wit and piquancy, hence the term "Attic salt." Shakespeare says : " Though we are justices, and doctors, and churchmen, we have some salt of our youth in us." It was formerly considered a very unlucky omen to upset the salt-cellar at the table, and to sit at the table "above the salt" was a position of honor, the old custom being to place a salt-cellar in the middle of the table, the places above which were assigned to the guests of distinction, while those "below the salt" were dependents and servants. Hence, the expression of Ben Jonson, with which we close this rough sketch : "His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt."