SALT 



5176 



SALT 



contain the greatest quantities of suit, but the 

 smaller, enclosed seas, such as the Dead, Black, 

 Red and Caspian, and Great Salt Lake, con- 

 tain an even greater proportion. 



Rock Salt. The greater part of the world's 

 supply of salt is now produced from rock salt, 

 . xtt nsive deposits of which occur in America 

 in the Canadian province of Ontario and in the 

 states of Michigan, New York, Ohio, Kansas, 



LOUISIANA ROCK SALT MINE 

 Drawn from a photograph taken 600 feet under- 

 ground in a. mine of solid rock salt. 



California and Louisiana. Smaller quantities 

 are found in many other states as well, in all 

 degrees of purity, from a salty clay to pure, 

 transparent crystals. In Nevada, extending 

 twenty-five miles along the Virgin River, there 

 is a saline bluff over sixty per cent of which is 

 salt of a high grade. A deposit covering 144 

 acres occurs on A very 's Island, near New Iberia, 

 La. The deep shaft mine near Detroit, Mich., 

 produces more than any other in the country, 

 and its supply seems inexhaustible. 



The production of the United States has 

 shown a steady increase, and tends more and 

 more to supply the entire demand of the coun- 

 try, though the salt from the West Indies and 

 Mediterranean countries is a competitor with 

 New York salt for the trade of the Atlantic 



coast. The annual marketed product of the 

 United States, including the salt of Porto Rico, 

 now exceeds 34,000,000 barrels, or more than 

 4.800,000 short tons, valued at over $10,271,300. 

 Michigan, with an annual output of more than 

 11,600,000 barrels, ranks first, and New York 

 (over 10,000,000 barrels) is second. Besides 

 consuming most of its output, the country an- 

 nually imports over 900,000 barrels. 



The richest fields in Europe are the Car- 

 pathian mines in Austria, where the vaulted 

 chambers and massive pillars of salt extend 

 thirty miles; in the lower levels of the mines 

 there are streets and houses for the miners. 

 Some of the largest salt mines in the world are 

 at Wieliczka, near Cracow (which see). There 

 are large deposits also in Western Germany, 

 Russia, Switzerland, France, Spain and Great 

 Britain. These salt deposits often occur where 

 there are petroleum, bitumen and inflammable 

 gas, and at a remarkable salt spring in China 

 the escaping gas serves as fuel for the evapora- 

 tion of the salt brine. 



Rock salt is extracted by mining, by evapo- 

 rating the water of natural brine springs, and 

 by evaporating artificial brine. This latter is 



SALT 



Michigan 

 I! 



OhJo 

 5 



H 



New York 

 10 



Kansas 

 3 



Figures Represent Millions of Barrels 



PRODUCTION IN AN AVERAGE YEAR 

 Only those states are named which report over 

 3,000,000 barrels of salt in a year. (From United 

 States Government reports.) 



produced by forcing water into salt beds and 

 dissolving the salt; the brine is then pumped 

 to the surface and evaporated in the open air 

 or by artificial heat. 



Uses. There are various grades of salt, 

 known as table, dairy, common, fine, packer's, 

 solar, etc. Salt is used in the largest quantities 

 as a seasoner of food, but it is also employed 

 in the packing and preserving of meat and fish ; 

 in the manufacture of soda ash, sodium car- 

 bonate and caustic soda; for hardening soaps; 

 in the glazing of coarse pottery and in im- 

 proving the clearness of glass. It is a good 

 fertilizer because it attracts and holds moisture 

 and sets free the inert plant food in the soil. 

 It is a necessary part of the food of cattle, and 

 wild animals obtain it from salt licks or springs 



