MANUFACTURE OF SALT. 



Ill 



Manufacture of Salt. 



Under this head, my object is to present a few facts intended to e.xliibit the advantages 

 which the Onondaga springs possess, and to offer some suggestions concerning the modes of 

 manufacture pursued at tlie works in their vicinity. 



The existence of brine springs on the banks of the Onondaga lake, was made known by 

 the Indians to the late Comfort Tyler, Esq. in the year 1788. The manufacture of salt was 

 soon after commenced, but it was for some years conducted on a very limited scale, and in 

 'the rudest manner. Since the completion of the Erie canal, the salt-works have been greatly 

 improved, and the amount of salt annually manufactured has, with few exceptions, been 

 steadily increasing from year to year, as is shown by the annexed statement : 



T.\BLE showing the amount of Salt inspected annually at the Onondaga Salt-Works, 



from 1826 to 1841. 



YEARS. BUSHELS. 



1826, 827,.508 



1827, 983,410 



1828, 1,160,888 



1829, 1,291,280 



1830, 1,435,446 



1831, 1,514,037 



1832, 1,652,985 



1833, 1,838,646 



YEARS. BUSHELS. 



1834, 1,943,252 



1835, 2,209,867 



1836, 1,912,858 



1837, 2,161,287 



1838, 2,575,033 



1839, 2,864,718 



1840, 2,622,305 



1841, 3,134,317 



If our estimate of the amount of brine raised by the pumps in operation at Syracuse, 

 Salina, Liverpool and Geddes, be correct, we have a total of 44,760 gallons in an hour, or 

 1,074,240 gallons in twenty-four hours. If the same amount was raised for three hundred 

 days, it would give a total of 322,272,000 gallons of brine ; which, allowing fifty gallons of 

 brine to a bushel of salt, would yield 6,445,400 bushels. This allowance, I think, is sufficient 

 to cover all unavoidable loss in the manufacture ; as it appears from the analyses that have 

 been given, that in all the brines, forty-five gallons actually contain a bushel of common salt 

 in its ordinary state of purity. 



The following statement will show that heretofore there has been a great waste of brine. 

 In the year 1836, the three pump works were in operation at Salina, Syracuse and Geddes, 



about two hundred and fifty days. During this period there were raised not less than 



230,000,000 of gallons of brine, while the amount of salt made dui'ing that year fell short of 

 2,000,000 bushels. At least 100,000,000 of gallons of brine, therefore, were lost; and al- 

 though this may seem to be a matter of small moment, it will, when properly considered, be 

 found of some importance. Tiie State, it is true, is more interested in it than the manufac- 



