44 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



increased to 2600. Moreover the iron (ferrous carbonate) 

 and the sulphate of lime (calcium sulphate) separate very 

 quickly. When rain prevents the lime from becoming 

 saturated, before it is discharged into the deep rooms or 

 cisterns, it is returned to these aprons by a pump. The in- 

 crease in the yield of salt per cover by this method over the 

 old one is about 15 to 20 bushels per season according to 

 the size of the aprons belonging to a yard. 



The amount of salt produced in a solar field during a sea- 

 son depends not only on the state of the weather but also on 

 the composition of the pickle from which the salt is 

 deposited, since if the latter is too highly charged with cal- 

 cium and magnesium chlorides due to keeping the old 

 pickle over from season to season, evaporation may be 

 greatly retarded thereby ; in fact it may cease almost en- 

 tirely, since whatever evaporation of water may take place 

 in clear warm weather from a pickle overcharged with these 

 chlorides, will be reabsorbed again by them during the 

 prevalence of a damp moist atmosphere. The quality of 

 the salt depends on the weather to a certain extent, but 

 mainly on the intelligence and care of the workman. Sup- 

 plying the salt rooms with perfectly saturated pickle, allow- 

 ing the harvested salt (after properly washing it with newer 

 pickle from the section above to remove adhering gypsum 

 crystals and chlorides) to drain properly both in the tub 

 and the storehouse and finally to discharge the old pickle 

 at the proper time, are of the utmost importance in the 

 manufacture of a good commercial solar salt. 



According to the laws of the state the freshly harvested 

 salt must remain 14 days in the storehouse before it can be 

 put on the market. 



There are at Syracuse about 43,000 covers with over 12 

 million square feet evaporating surface capable of produc- 

 ing 3,500,000 bushels during a season, which usually extends 

 from the middle of March to the middle of November, 

 according to the weather. 



