THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



459 



eome few years since reported by ihe Ut-v. Mr. 

 Parker,* a ruissionary iunotiL' ilie liuii;u)s ol' the. 

 Tar west, as exisiinu; in abuiulance in a inuunlain 

 on (he Salmon river, anioniillie Rocky mountains ; 

 hut no n)ineral salt, in ihe solid (orm, had ever 

 been discovered in the Uniied Slates proper. Now, 

 however, we have the pleasure of aniiouncitiir 

 this discovei^' on the authority olthe Rev. Stephen 

 Taylor, of At)inixdon, Va. His letter to us is 

 dated March 4. 1841, and was soon followed by a 

 large box of sail of the most indubiiable 

 character. 



It was taken from a well which is "siill in the 

 process of beini; dunr, at the salt works about 

 eijfhieen miles from Ahinifdun, in the county of 

 \Vashingion,'' now jif-rhaps wiihin the bounds of 

 Sn)yih couniy. From Prof. VVm. B. Roi^'ers, as 

 Ihe geologist of Virginia, we mus: expect a full 

 scieniific account o! this salt Ibrmaiion, which, 

 however, appears to have been discovered, as we 

 are inlbrmed, since he visited that pari o( Vir- 

 ginia. The following particulars are derived 

 Irom a correspondent of Mr. Taylor, and they 

 may not be unimeresting in anticipation of ihc 

 geological report of Prof. Rogers. 



DiHerent persons vary in their report of the 

 depth of the diflerent wells. That ol the sali- 

 rock well does not vary mucli-froni two iiundred 

 and sixty (eet. At about thirty lijet gypsum has 

 beensiruckin all the wells, and in ihe salt-rock 

 well has continued down to the solid bed of salt- 

 rock, occasionally changing to slate and thin 

 veins of blue soft clay. At about two hundred 

 and thirty leei, they arrived at ihe first sympioms 

 ol salt, which (rom plaster, slaie-rock and salt, 

 giadually changed, the salt-rock assuming the 

 jiredominant part. 



The writer remarks, " we have, for thirtj' feet, 

 cont.niied through ihis substance, and now find 

 the slaie-rock gradually intermixing with it." 

 Several wells have been bored at difteretil times, 

 within short distances of each other. It is said, 

 that Irom one of them, some years ago, salt t)or- 

 ings were extracted ; salt water was Ibund al two 

 hundred and twentj -six (eet deep. 



From a single well, sufficient salt water is now 

 extracted in twenty lour hours, to afibrd one thou- 

 sand bushels of merchantable salt, which more 

 than supplies ihe demand in that region ol 

 Virginia. 



The salt forwarded to us by Mr. Taylor, is 

 highly crystalline in i's struciure, aim except a red 

 color, (obviously derived from iron,t) and oc- 

 casional fragments of rocks mixed wiih it, a()pears 

 to be very pure. Its taste is decidedly and purely 

 saline, without bitterness ; when pulverized, the 

 red color almost disappears, and it is tolerably 

 white. Some small pieces were perleclly white. 

 Specimens ol gypsum were enclosed in our box ; 

 they are of a very decided character — are finely 

 granular in structure, and of a grayish white. 

 We have no account of the other rocks Ibund with 

 the salt, but from the fragments intermixed 



* In conversation with the senior editor, Mr. Parker 

 mentions (see his Travels, p. 108) seeing the salt a 

 mile off on Ihe left ; he was too ill to climb up to 

 it, but the Indians procured some for him, which was 

 pure and crystallized. 



t It is now ascertained that rock-salt is sometimes 

 colored by animalcules. 



presume that sandstone and marly clays are 

 among them. 



P. S. A second letter from Rev. S. Taylor, 

 dated May 31, states, on the authority of Mr. W. 

 Findiey, who is the pro()rietor of the well in 

 vvhiih the salt is Ibund, that in sinking the well, 

 they penetrated earth and rock about fifty or sixty 

 leei. when ihey came upon the plaster through 

 which they passed about one hundred and fifty 

 or one hundred and seventy leet. They then 

 struck upon ihe bed of salt, and penetrated it 

 about filiy or sixty lt;et without reaching the salt 

 water ; they then abandoned the digging, applied 

 the auger, and bored about ten ftiet more, as he 

 supposes, through the salt, but the mixture of salt 

 water renders it uncertain. The roof then appears 

 to be gypsum but the floor is unknown. 



liebig's organic chemistry.* 



This work of Professor Liebig has received 

 more respectful attention and applause than any 

 on agriculture that has issued from the press; and 

 whether judiciously ap[)lieiJ in this case, or other- 

 wise, this reception is indicative of greatly in- 

 creased appreciation of agricultural chemistry. 

 From the investigation of that branch of agricul- 

 tural science, the best results must Ibllow." And 

 no work have we yet seen that furnished to agri- 

 culiunsts a more abundant siore of scieniific fiicts, 

 and more subjects for thinking, and for further in- 

 vestigation, than the work now under considera- 

 tion. But highly as we estimate the author's 

 scientific researches, and his chemical facts, we 

 are compelled to dissent from his theoretical views 

 thence deduced. And yet, it would seem, from 

 the several highly eulogistic notices which have 

 preceded or immediately lollowed the republica- 

 tion of ttie work in this couo'ry, that the theoreti- 

 cal and new, and, as we deem them, the unsus- 

 lained views, had chiefly served lo command 

 applause; and iiad eclipsed, in the eyes of Ihe 

 greatest admirers, the many interesting and impor- 

 tant chemical fleets, which (though used sometimes 

 lijr wrong deductions) nsay serve, upon better un- 

 derstanding and more careful application, as the 

 •oundation of the most useful and important steps 

 towards agricultural improvement. We therefore 

 earnestly recommend to scientific agriculturists 

 and 10 chemists to study Liebig; and while they 

 should not receive his theoretical deductions with- 

 out well weighing his train of reasoning, that 

 they will treasure up and profitably apply the 

 many important and unquestionable lights which 

 he has lurnished lor reasoning, and lor practical 

 application. 



In the first sketch of the ' Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures,' which was published in lS21,t was 

 the earliest assertion made in this country of the 



* " Organic Chemistry in its application to Agri- 

 culture and Physiology. By Justus Liebig, M. D., 

 Pb. D., F. R. S., M. R. I. A., &c., Professor of Che- 

 mistry in the University of Giessen. Edited from the 

 manuscript of the author, by Lyon Playfair, Ph. D. 

 First American edition, with an Introduction, Notes, 

 and Appendix, by John W. Webster, M. D., Professor 

 of Chemistry in Harvard University. Cambridge, 

 1S41." 



t In Ihe American Farmer, vol. iii.. page 312. 



