50 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
The large number of producers in Onondaga county ‘is incident 
to the solar salt industry which is carried on extensively around 
Syracuse. The brine used by the solar evaporating works or salt 
yards is stored in glacial gravels and is pumped and distributed by 
central plants. The principal supply comes from the old Onondaga 
Salt Springs Reservation that was sold by the Indians to the State 
in 1788. The manufacture of salt was placed under State control 
in 1797 from which time complete records of the industry are avail- 
able. At one time artificial evaporation was extensively practised 
but this has been given up almost entirely in recent years with the 
increased competition from other districts. The solar salt is sold 
through the agency of the Onondaga Coarse Salt Association. 
With the exception of the salt made at Syracuse, the entire pro- 
duction is obtained from the deposits of rock salt which are found 
in the Salina formation, a succession of shales and limestones with 
intercalated beds of gypsum and rock salt. The Salina strata out- 
crop in an east-west belt across the State from Albany county to the 
Niagara river and is represented by a smaller separate area in 
southeastern New York. Well tests indicate that the salt deposits 
are restricted to the western section of the main belt beginning in 
Madison county; east of there the strata diminish in thickness to 
such an extent as to preclude their existence. They are encount- 
ered only at a depth of 1000 feet or more where there has been 
sufficient cover to protect them against solution by ground waters. 
As the whole stratified series has a dip uniformly toward the south, 
the mines and wells are all located on the southern side of the 
outcrop which lies about on the line of the 43d parallel. The dip 
averages 40 or 50 feet to the mile. The most easterly point where 
rock salt has been found is at Morrisville, Madison county. Be- 
tween that place and Lake Erie it has been shown to exist in almost 
all counties of the middle tier. 
The exploration of the rock salt beds dates from 1878 when a 
well bored for oil near Wyoming, Wyoming county, encountered 
70 feet of salt at 1270 feet from the surface. Discoveries were 
subsequently made at Warsaw, Leroy, Rock Glen, Batavia and 
numerous places in Livingston, Wyoming and Genesee counties. 
Practically the whole valley of Oatka creek, from Leroy to Bliss 
and the Genesee valley south of Monroe county has been found to 
be salt-bearing. The region is now the most productive in the 
State. Livingston county has the largest annual output which 1s 
contributed by the two rock salt mines at Retsof and Cuylerville 
