210 [Assembly 



salt islands, but from the salt springs and mines situated in the pond, 

 and which pond is capable of realizing ten millions of bushels at one 

 crop, having done so half a century ago. The pond promises again 

 to be very productive, in consequence of the springs being reopened 

 from some convulsion of nature, which were supposed to have been 

 closed for many years, by a similar cause.'' 



I understand that provision packers object to St. Martin's salt on 

 account of the large size of the crystals ; this difficulty is easily re- 

 medied by screening the salt and using the larger crystals for re- 

 packing. Salt for packing provisions should be sufficiently coarse to 

 keep the layers of meat apart, so that the brine can act upon the 

 entire surface of the meat. 



At the Fossil salt mines, or the mountains of southwestern Vir- 

 ginia, salt is now selling at 20 cents per bushel; formerly the same 

 quantity at the same place sold for one dollar. In 1845, Dr. Mc 

 Call, one of the proprietors of the Virginia salt mines, addressed to 

 me a letter on the subject of making salt in that locality, in which 

 he stated that the expense of making a bushel of salt was from 12^ 

 to 15 cents. I was surprised at this great cost of manufacture, for I 

 had been furnished with specimens of the salt rock, and with brine 

 from the wells which connected with the salt mines, and knew that 

 the brine was of great purity, and testing by the salometer 94 de- 

 grees, and was also aware that fuel was there both abundant and 

 cheap. In reply I stated to him that salt at the Onondaga Salines 

 was sold at from 6 to 8 cents per bushel of 56 lbs. (duty off,) that 

 the brine was only 74° of strength, and impure, and wood for fuel 

 double the cost of wood at Scottville. 



These facts were a conclusive argument, and Dr. McCall imme- 

 diately set out for the Onondaga Salines, and there engaged a citi- 

 zen, the Hon. Thomas Spencer, former State Superintendent of 

 Salines. Mr. Spencer accompanied Dr. McCall to Virginia, and. 

 superintended one share of the mines. Since his return home Dr. 

 McCall WTites to me, that so great have been the improvements that 

 a saving of half the fuel has been made and of two-thirds the labor, 

 and a better quality of salt is produced. 



These mines are capable of furnishing millions of bushels of the 

 best salt the globe produces, but the roads are so intolerably bad 

 that the market is limited to 200,000 bushels of salt per annum. 



