THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY I913 63 



year, however, production began on a fairly large scale in the War- 

 saw district where private enterprise had succeeded in developing 

 beds of rock salt. These afforded much richer brines than the nat- 

 ural brines of the Onondaga district, an advantage that proved very 

 important in the manufacture of the artificially evaporated grades 

 and that led to the later exclusive use of such brines in all but the 

 solar evaporating plants. The production of rock salt by under- 

 ground mining through vertical shafts began in 1885 on the prop- 

 erty now owned by the Retsof Mining Co., situated at Retsof, 

 Livingston county. 



The statistical record of the industry shows that the output in 

 1797, when the first regular operations began, was 25,474 bushels, 

 or 5095 barrels. By the year 1828 the output had reached a million 

 bushels or 200,000 barrels, and in 1849 it had grown to over 1,000,- 

 000 barrels. The solar process was introduced in the Syracuse dis- 

 trict in 1821, but for many years the process was subordinate to 

 that of artificial evaporation in open kettles. After 1882 the com- 

 petition of the works in the western part of the State which used 

 brines derived from the rock salt beds began to show itself in a 

 diminished production from the Syracuse plants, and the latter soon 

 lost the preeminent position in the industry which they had so long 

 held. Altogether the output of brine and rock salt in the State in 

 the period 1797-1913 has amounted to the total of 257,622,716 bar- 

 rels. As indicative of the rapid growth made in the last few 

 decades it may be noted that the production up to 1882, when the 

 exploitation of the rock salt beds began to be active, was 57,890,922 

 barrels ; whereas in the period since elapsed it has amounted to 199,- 

 731,794 barrels. 



The accompanying tables present the figures of production and 

 value for recent years. The output in 191 2 and 191 3 is given ac- 

 cording to grades, so far as the classification can be made without 

 revealing the individual figures. The grades depend upon the 

 methods of manufacture and purposes for which the salt is used. 

 Rock salt and salt in brine consumed for the manufacture of sodium 

 compounds appear in the last item of the detailed tables, which also 

 include small quantities of evaporated salt not especially classified 

 in the returns. The evaporated salt is chiefly marketed under the 

 grades of common fine, table and dairy, common coarse, coarse 

 solar and packers salt. Table and dairy salt includes the finest 

 grades of artificially evaporated salt which undergo special prepa- 

 ration for the table and for butter and cheese making ; it brings the 



