S3' 



fMU "TROPiCAL AGUlCVLTUmBf. [fe^. i, iS86. 



ISSUE OF DOTY-FEEE SALT IN INDU. 



The foUowiug is a Resolution of the Goverament of 

 India, dated L'3rd Decembnr, 1885:— 



One of the chief objections taken to the salt duties 

 is that, owing to the resulting _ high prices, cattle are 

 stinted in their supply of salt, while manufacturers 

 aud agriculturists are required to pay duty on salt 

 employed in industry and agriculture. The attention 

 of the Government of India has been give to the 

 matter for some years in tho hopq that an unobjection- 

 able method of freeing from dutysalt rcnuirod for the 

 purposes above indicated might sooner or later be 

 discovered. 



No satisfactory way of affecting this object, and at 

 the same time of protecting the State from risk of fraud, 

 has as yet been found. The issue of duty-free salt 

 on a simple guarantee that it will be used for certain 

 purposes and for no others is, in the absence of special 

 safeguards, •ut of the question, while the provision of 

 such safeguards would entail the entertainment of 

 establishments at inordinate expense, or the adoption of 

 measures harassing to the section of the public con- 

 cerned. The only plan which would fully meet tho 

 requirements of the ease would be the denaturalisation 

 of salt so as to render it unfit for human consumption, 

 whilst it remained (it for use by cattle and as manure, 

 or for industrial purposes, the salt not being easily 

 restorable to an edible condition by any of the methods 

 which could in ordinary circumstances be employed 

 in India. If salt were thus prepaied, it might be freely 

 issued .it little over cost price without danger to 

 the revenue. So far, however, all attempts made to 

 discover such a process have proved more or less un- 

 satisfactory in their results. 



2. The first experiment was made in 1876 by Mr. 

 Wood, then Chemical Examiner to the Government 

 of Bengal, consequent on an application from Messrs. 

 Burn & Co., of Calcutta, for the remission of duty 

 on salt used by them in llie manufacture of glazed 

 stoneware, pipes and similar articles. Mr. Wood re- 

 ported that he was unable to find out a process which 

 fidly complied with the conditions laid down, namely, 

 the discovery of an inexpensive method whereby salt 

 may be rendered unfit for human consumption and 

 can he again rendered edible only by a process, the cost 

 of which would equal or exceed the duty levied on it. 

 But te suggested an alternative method, namely, the 

 admixture of salt with coal tar, the tarred salt being 

 issued to manufacturers of glazed stoneware free of 

 duty, upon a per.soual guarantee for its use exclusively 

 in manufacture. This method was adopted and is 

 still practised, the salt being issued subject to certain 

 special rules framed by the Government of Bengal. 

 The arrangement works satisfactorily on the limited 

 scale on which it has been tried, but constant super- 

 vision is required, aud tarred salt cannot be used 

 except in pottery manufacture. 



3. In 1877, Dr. H. Warth was directed to make 

 experiments after tho German method with some of 

 the refuse salt of the Punjab mines. A mixture of 

 salt with colocyuth {CitiuUux coh^siiiitlils) and another 

 with lignite, oil-cake, aud cotton seed were tried, but 

 the reeult in both cases wa,s unsatisfactory, pure salt 

 being easily recovered from the mixtures, and the ex- 

 periments were discontinued. On application to the 

 Secretary of State for information showing precisely 

 the proce.'s of denatiu-alisation employed in Germany, 

 it appeari.-d that salt wa.s issued for agricultural pur- 

 po.'-es in two forms, (1) a coarse powder consisting of 

 n mixture of oxide of iron and vermouth powder 

 (Artimhin db^iiithhim), and (2) blocks for beasts to 

 )i, k, the salt being mixed with oxide of iron and char- 

 cual powder. Salt for manure was mixed with charcoal 

 dust, ashes, lamp-black or ordinary soot, in different 

 projmrtions. These mixtures, though effective in 

 Germany, would not be so in this country, where the 

 salt duty is much heavier, aud cheaper means of 

 restoring the salt exist. 



4. In 1870, the Government of Madras forwarded 

 an application from Mr. Barter for jjcrmission to use 

 duty-lree salt in the manufacture of manure. The 

 Oonjtnieeioner of Salt Bovenuc, Mstlras, referred ty 



the various processes of medicating salt used in France, 

 and recommended compliance with Mr. Barter's ap- 

 plication, provided the salt was first mixed with 

 poudrette in accordance with the French method. The 

 Board sup])orted the recommendation of the Salt 

 Commissioner, but the Government of India considered 

 that the issue of a mixture of the kind to the people 

 of this couutry w?s oijviously objectionable, as leading 

 to serious misapprehension of motives. The proposal 

 ^as therefore negatived. 



•5. The European methods of medicating salt having 

 been found unsuitable, and the experimeuts made in 

 Bengal and the Punjab having proved unsuccessful, 

 the Government of India, in its Re.solation of the 22nd 

 August 1883, cited in the preaml)le, invited local 

 governments and private individuals to make careful 

 aud systematic expeiraents for the discovery of a 

 satisfactory process. Various attempts have been 

 made in compliance with these instructions, but none 

 of them can be considered completely satisfactory. 

 The following is a brief summary of the suggestioui 

 received, and of the causes which render them in- 

 effectual. 



(1) Lieutenant J. F. Pogson, Dehra Dun.— A 

 mixture of salt with slaked lime or chuuam.c.irbonatc 

 of potash, powdered charcoal, rice flour ain\ water. 

 Experiment showed that the preparation was useless, 

 puresalt being recovered from the mixture by solu- 

 tion in water and subsequent evaporation. A sample 

 of cattle salt prepared by Lieutenant Pogson, of which 

 he declined to name the ingredients, was tested by 

 the Chemical Examiner, Pimjab, and also founil use- 

 less. 



(2) Captain Davie.s, Barrack Master, I'mballa, 

 suggested a mixture of salt with green succulent grass 

 in the proportion of 4U or more parts of the latter 

 to one of the former. Edible salt can he easily 

 recovered from the mixture. 



(3) Mr. C. J. Simons, Mahmarra Tea Estate, .Vssam. 

 —A mixture of edible salt with sulphate of .soda Ikliari 

 niiHiil;) in the proportion of 4 tcj S and oi suljiliur riniin, 

 black salt and mustard oil-cake in small proportions. 

 The mixture was examined by the Chemical Examiner, 

 North-Western Provinces and Oudh, who reported 

 that edible salt could be recovered from it by an easy 

 process. 



(4) Dr. Warth. — A mixture of salt with cfUi; bran, 

 oil-cake, and grass. Experiments made by the Super- 

 intendent, Experimental Farm, ^'orth.^\'cstern Pro- 

 vinces and Oudh, failed, edible salt being easily 

 recoverable from the mixture. 



(.5) Surgeon-Major J. B. Gaffney, Civil Surgeon, 

 Seoul, Central Provinces. — A mixture of salt with 

 " mahwa " refuse from distilleries. Experiments made 

 in accordance with this suggestion by the Assist-mt 

 Commissioner of the Sambhar Lake Division failed, 

 salt being separated from the mixture by the simple 

 process of recrystallisation. 



(W) Mr. 11. Murray, of Lahore. — Mr. Murray 

 suggested four alternative methoils of preparing cattle 

 fodder — (1) a mixture of hay, wheat, bran, grass, 

 fodder, aiicl gram with caramel, molasses (mixed with 

 green fodiler juice), and .salt; (2) a mixture of bran, 

 salt, and caramel; (3) a mixture of hay, bran, and 

 various descriptioi s of fodder with cotton, nuistard 

 seed, caramel, molasses, and salt; \-i) a mixture of 

 wheat meal, gram, caramel, oil-cake, and salt. Every 

 facility was afforded to Mr. Murray at the JIayo Salt 

 mines, and salt supplied to him free of duty. He made 

 a small quantity only of fodder by way of experiment, 

 but, owing to the cost of conveyance by rail of au 

 article .so bulky as this preparation, it was found 

 impossible toi)lacethe fodder in the market ;it .'i price 

 which woulil be remunerative and attract puchascrs. 

 The experiments have been abondoued. 



(7) Mr. 1!. liomanis, D. Sc, Chemical Examiner, 

 British l!urma.-A mixture of salt with sulphide of 

 antimony, sulphur, and charcoal, or lime freshly slaked. 

 This method fulfils the conditions laid down by the 

 Government of ludia, but competent authorities, who 

 were consulted as to its cllicacy, report that fatal 

 reeults may ioUow fiom coutiuued coQtumptiun of a 



