26 



any great length of time. The salt itself was not formerly so well 

 made as at present. The ingredient in common salt so fatal to the 

 flavor of what was intended for choice butter, is the chloride of calci- 

 um, which has an extremly bitter taste, that is imparted to any but- 

 ter that it remains long in contact with. Thousands of the country 

 people, and many in the towns, eat butter seasoned with this kind of 

 salt, without knowing the difference ; but no first quality of table 

 butter, for family use, and to bring the highest price, can be made 

 from it. The ground Solar Salt made here, especially if it has 

 been "medicated," as a peculiar process in its preparation is called, 

 conies nearer to the English salt, and is quite unexceptionable unless 

 extraordinary efforts are not to be applied to the butter made. But 

 for a description of salt to be recommended without reservation, as 

 every way equal if not superior to the best quality of English, the 

 "Factory Filled" employed in the test described in the letter below, 

 is beyond question a kind that may be relied on with the fullest con- 

 fidence by all the producers of Orange (or any other) county but- 

 ter. It is manufactured by a new process, involving scientific prin- 

 ciples, and can be separated entirely from the deleterious com- 

 pounds which affect the flavor of butter under ordinary circum- 

 stances. The operations of the Onondaga Salt Company in produc- 

 ing this description of salt were on a somewhat limited scale, last 

 year, but entirely successful so far as it could be introduced. The 

 ensuing season enough will be made to supply any reasonable de- 

 mand, and as it can be furnished at a price made lower than that 

 which butter makers have been paying for English salt, it will be 

 found deserving the attention of consumers. In addition to its mer- 

 its on this score, it affords the finest quality of table salt known in 

 this country. 

 Syracuse; March 20, 1862. S. 



MR. DICKINSON'S LETTER. 



LEON, Feb, 14, 1862. 



" I am here in the most delightful country that man ever be- 

 held, [though the climate is rather warm,] and where he can live 

 with less labor than anywhere else in the world. He can purchase 

 provisions, ready cooked, in the market enough to keep him eating a 

 week, for less money than it.would require to buy a sufficient quantity 

 of liquor to get drunk on once. The Plaintain [Banana ?] here is the 

 staff of life, and it is blooming and maturing its fruit every day in 

 the year, though not like the orange on the same tree. By a 

 bountiful provision of nature, when one stalk is cut down for its 

 fruit, a dozen sprouts start from the crown of the root to take its 

 place, which also ripen their fruit in eight, ten or twelve months. 

 This fruit is eaten in every shape raw, roasted, boiled, fried, and 

 dried in the sun. It makes very good preserves, equal for imme- 



