No. 108.] 61 



back kettles nearest the chimney, where there is but little heat, it is 

 a superior article, and its appearance alone is a sufficient recommen- 

 dation of its quality. These specimens are exhibited to show the ex- 

 cellent quality of the salt, and call public attention to the great ex- 

 tent of the supply. 



These salines are the property of the people of this State — public 

 property — belonging to the great body of the citizens of this great 

 commonwealth. With the monies arising from the duties collected 

 from the manufacture of Onondaga salt, the State has paid a portion 

 of the interest of the Erie canal loan; thus have these inexhaustible 

 salines conferred a double benefit on the people of this State. 



During the month of July, 1842, the quantity of salt made at the 

 Onondaga salines, was 363,497 bushels, against 558,643 bushels made 

 in the month of July, 1841. This difference in the quantity arose 

 from the suspension of many of the works of the present season, in 

 consequence of the low rate of duties on foreign salt. Turk's Island 

 salt was entered at the New-York custom house in July and August, 

 1842, as low as eighteen to twenty cents per bushel; of course the 

 duty at twenty per cent on the home valuation, was about four cents 

 per bushel; this competition was ruinous to the manufacture of salt 

 at Onondaga, hence the stoppage of the works. The price of salt at 

 these works, is only the wages of labor; for the price of the wood 

 consumed in boiling, is the value of the labor in cutting and trans- 

 porting; therefore the duty operated to paralize industry by compel- 

 ing the laborer to be idle. The great source of wealth is labor. The 

 price of the produce of labor is governed in the main, by the wages 

 of labor. However bounteous the products of the earth may be, they 

 cannot be gathered without labor. Every public measure which has 

 the effect to encourage industry and give employment to labor, is a 

 public and also a private benefit. 



The sample or specimen of salt rock exhibited at the Fair of the 

 American Institute, is from the salt mine at Saltville, near Abingdon, 

 Washington county, Virginia, which county borders upon East Ten- 

 nessee and North Carolina. 



This mine is situate between the Clinch mountain and the Blue 

 ridge, and on the western declivity of the latter. The strata of salt 

 rock is 150 feet in thickness, and lies 220 feet below the surface of 

 the ground. The over stratas are black shale, slate, plaster rock and 

 clay. Shell lime is abundant on the surface near by. This salt rock 

 is of very excellent quality, and is composed almost wholly of the 

 chloride of sodium. The strata was discovered in 1840, in boring 

 for salt water. A well had been sunk in this place a number of years 

 ago, from which considerable salt was made, but the well caved in, 

 and the proprietors caused it to be sunk deeper. The water obtained 

 was about of the same strength as that now used at the Onondaga Sa- 

 lines. The quantity, however, was not so abundant as the proprie- 

 tors desired, and they caused the well to be sunk still deeper, and in 

 this boring they struck the salt rock, which they continued in for 150 

 feet, when they reached a strata of slate mixed with plaster rock, in 

 which they continued about six feet; but finding the supply of water 



