50 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



lies partly in the town of West Union, Steuben county, and is ac- 

 countable for the production in that section. 



The productive wells in the three counties number about 10,500, 

 of which 7500 are in Allegany county, 200 in Steuben and the re- 

 mainder in Cattaraugus county. All are pumped, using natural gas 

 derived from some of them for power. The average yield is now 

 less than one-third of a barrel a day. 



SALT 



The salt industry shared in the general decline which charac- 

 terized most of the business activities last year and reported a con- 

 siderable falling off in output. The decline was the first serious 

 interruption to progress that the industry has felt in some time, in 

 fact since the panic times of 1907 when there was a temporary but 

 rather serious drop in production. As a whole, however, the con- 

 ditions were not particularly hard upon the producers, as they 

 would have been if accompanied by ,a corresponding shrinkage of 

 prices ; but the latter seem to have been well maintained according 

 to the averages reported for the values of the different grades. 



The statistics for the last two years are summarized in the ac- 

 companying tables. The output in 1 1914 was 10,389,072 barrels 

 against 10,819,521 barrels in the preceding year; showing a de- 

 crease of 430,449 barrels or approximately 4 per cent. Converted 

 to a tonnage basis, the product last year was equivalent to 

 1,454,470 short tons. It was the third largest total that has been 

 reported up to the present. 



The classification of the product according to grades recognized 

 in the trade is followed so far as practicable without revealing the 

 individual figures. Rock salt and the salt in brine that is consumed 

 for alkali manufacture appear in the last item of the tables, which 

 includes also small amounts of evaporated salt not specially class- 

 ified in the returns. Most of the evaporated salt is marketed under 

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

 and packers salt. Table and dairy salt includes the superior grades 

 of artificially evaporated salt that are specially prepared for the 

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

 market prices. Under common fine arc listed the other grades of 

 fine, artificially evaported salt that 'are not specially prepared. 

 Common coarse represents the coarser product from artificial evap- 

 oration. Solar salt is made by evaporation of brine in shallow vats 

 exposed to the sun's heat. The process is employed only by the 

 manufacturers on the old Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation at 



