534 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



The streets may be cleared very effectively and cheaply by 

 its use. 



Mr. Fisher called out Mr. Ebbitt, of the Sixth Avenue Rail- 

 road, Avho said he was one of the first to use salt. He thought 

 185G was the first year in which it was used in this city. He was 

 the first. It Avas continued until 1861, when the Common Coun- 

 cil stopped it. If the salt produced diptheria by any effect on 

 the air, it should affect the drivers and conductors. There are 

 300 men in the employ of the Sixth Avenue Railroad Companj', 

 and the conductors generally are not naturally robust men. The 

 situations are sought by men of feeble health as a good business 

 to preserve and restore health. Only 130 or 140 bushels of salt 

 were used for each snow, on the entire length — five miles of 

 double track. There are, in an average winter, about sixteen 

 snows requiring saltings. The speaker had, himself, been in all 

 the snows, night and day, and had had no colds. 



There are some medical men who think the salt saturates the 

 earth and produces evils after the snow has gone. This is pro- 

 bably an error. It all goes into the sewers, and each additional 

 snow requires additional salt. None of the effects of the salt, in 

 removing the snow, are experienced three days after a salting. 



Mr. Ebbitt presented the following schedule of the quantities 

 used on his road each year : 



Year. Bushels. 



In 1856 52 



1857 1,945 



1858 1,900 



1859 2,970 



1860 3,960 



The following table gives the number of times snow fell in 

 New York city, from 1853 to 1862, from memorandums kept in 

 the ofiice of the Sixth Avenue Railroad Company : 



Year. Snows. 



In 1853... 5 



1854 11 



1855... 12 



1856 18 



1857 19 



1858 16 



1859. 16 



1860 11 



1861 13 



1862 19 



