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great and increasing demand of our State. The operations commenced 

 at the State salt wells near Grand Rapids, Kent county, and on the Tit- 

 tabawassee, Midland county, are not sufficiently advanced to determine 

 the extent of the anticipated profit of the manufacture. The strongest 

 brine obtained, up to this time, at the salt well of Mr. Lyon, at Grand 

 Kapids, will, without doubt, prove as productive as that of the best wells 

 of Ohio and Virginia. So that the present results may be considered 

 as certainly indicative of the success that was formeily supposed would 

 attend the boring for salt, if properly conducted, within our State. 



Michigan imports salt, probably to the amount of $300,000 annually, 

 which large amount of money might, as it soon will, be saved to the 

 State, by the supplies furnished from our own resources. The average 

 price of salt, at the ports of entry, has been about three doUai-s per bar- 

 el for the last four years. But when the works now in progress shall 

 have been brought into successful operation, supposing no stronger brine 

 to be obtained than that above stated, the article of salt can be furnish- 

 ed at a much less price than it now costs the consumer. 



GYPSUM. 



An extensive deposit of this very valuable mineral occurs in the vi- 

 cinity of Grand Rapids. The bed is here very extensive ; is about six 

 feet in thickness, and in quality is equal to the best Gypsum of Nova 

 Scotia. The same mineral is found elsewhere in our State, but this is 

 by far the most important locality at present known, and one that aftbrds 

 every faciUty for quarrying and distributing the mineral over the State. 

 A mill was erected during the past summer, and the ground plaster, tor 

 manure, is already manufactured in considerable quantities. 



Though the above locality is the only one known at which Gypsum 

 occurs, in the interior of our State, yet, from the ascertained Geological 

 character and dip of our rocks, and the associations of this mineral, it 

 may be presumed that Gypsum and its associated marls, will be hereaf- 

 ter disclosed at other points in the vicinity of the abore bed, and that 

 it will be found also to occur at other localities, in the interior, which 

 are concealed from present observation. 



Shell marl occurs in the greatest abundance throughout the State, 

 but more especially among the marshes and lakes of the openings. It 

 forms deposits, varying in extent from 1 acre to 100, and these are pret- 

 ty widely distributed. Its exceeding great value and cheapness, as a 

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