Report on the Development of the Salt Industry 

 of Central New York for the Year 1891. 



By Irving P. Bishop. 



The following information regarding the geological and busi- 

 ness interests of the salt industry in Western New York has 

 been collected during the months of July and August. West of 

 Wyoming county I do not find that any well has been sunk 

 in the salt since the date of my last report, in 1885. In the 

 Warsaw field the development has gone on principally in the 

 direction of enlargement of works and a greater production of 

 salt, rather than in the development of new territory. Nearly 

 every company has put down more wells so as to insure a larger 

 supply of brine, but the wells are usually sunk in the immediate 

 vicinity of those first put down, and so do not present any new 

 geological features. The records have not usually been kept 

 except that of the first well. 



Some new wells sunk in the Oatka valley since 1885, furnish 

 new geological information, as follows : 



The new wells at Leroy show, accordiug to the owners, twenty 

 feet of rock salt, instead of shale containing a little salt, as 

 recorded in my last report. 



The Lehigh Salt Mining Company is sinking a shaft for the 

 mining of salt on Lot 5, Kange 5, Leroy, about two miles south 

 of Leroy station, on the B. E. & P. E. E. (south side of track). 

 Elevation of mouth of shaft above tide, 906 feet. The shaft is 

 12x24 feet, and was down about forty-five feet in the Marcellus 

 shale at the time of my visit July thirtieth. A test well was 

 sunk here to determine the quality of this salt. This reached 

 salt at 765 feet, and was sunk to the depth of 900 feet. 



