TH£ TROPICAL AtjRTCtlLTU Rl ST. 
[April i, 1889. 
Concentrate the brine in reservoirs, ami do not let 
it into the crystallizing beds until it reaches 25 dg. 
Beaume or as near thereto as may be. The calcium 
compounds will thus be almost completely excluded from 
the crystallizing beds and from the salt there made. 
Scrape the salt when the brine reaohes 30 dg 
Beaume. No magnesium compounds will then be 
deposited with the salt, for the least soluble of them 
(Magnesium sulphate) does not crystallize until the 
brine reaches 32 dg. Beaume, unless after several irri- 
gations and evaporations. 
To prevent the concentration in the bitterns or 
mother liquor of the deleterious residum of consecutive 
irrigations and scrapings and the consequent incorpo- 
ration thereof with the salt and the coating of the 
salt crystals, therewith, discharge the bitterns after, 
at the very most, every fifth scraping, better after 
every fourth or third. 
It might be well if such rules were possible of 
enforcement in Ceylon. One of the final conclu- 
sions of the Madras Board of Revenue was : — 
In the peculiar circumstances of the salt-tax a mo- 
nopoly system is justifiable ; it is the duty of Govern- 
ment in levying a heavy tax on a necessary of life to 
see that supplies are ample, prices moderate, and that 
as large a proportion as possible out of that price reaches 
the Public Exchequer; the necessary control can 
only be exercised by a reversion to monopoly partially, 
if not entirely. 
But the Government of Madras did not aocept 
this doctrine. They want to give the excise sys- 
tem a further trial, with a fair warning to the 
licensees that if good salt is not by them supplied 
to the people at a moderate price, the excise sys- 
tem will be abolished and the absolute monopoly of 
Government reverted to. 
In one more article we shall deal with the supply 
of salt generally in India, including rock salt from 
mines in the Punjaub and the product of the enor- 
mous inland Sambhar Lake in Rajputana ; while 
further details will be given of salt manufacture 
and collection and its distribution in Ceylon. 
♦ ■ 
SALT AS A MONOPOLY AND A SOURCE 
OF REVENUE IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 
Mr. P. L. Simmonds in an article on salt in the 
Journal of the Society of Arts, whioh we have seen 
while writing this series of articles, suggested by 
the Madras papers on monopoly and excise, gives 
the rates of consumption in India at 
Per head per annum 
Madras ... ... 13 lb. 
Bengal ... ... 13 „ 
Bombay ... 10J„ 
The average would be a little over 12, but of 
recent years much salt has been used in the Madras 
Presidency, especially for the curing of fish. So, 
to some extent in Ceylon. The consumption of salt 
in India for 1887 is given at 33f millions of maunds. 
The imports of salt into India had increased in 
quantity from 274,000 tons in 1879 to 424,000 tons 
in 1888, but the average value per ton had fallen 
from £3 to £1-10. English salt goes chiefly to 
Bengal aB ballast. The export of salt from India 
to bordering states is 50,000 tons annually. Mr. 
Simmonds's account of the manufacture of salt in 
Ceylon is as follows :— 
In Ceylon, salt is a considerable source of revenue, 
and is carried on as a monopoly of the Government, 
the manufacture is mainly conducted by two Govern- 
ment establishments on the west and south coast of 
the island. The salt water is drawn from an extensive 
lagoon, about 28 miles long, and from 4 to 8 miles 
broad. The watur within this lagoon evaporates under 
the influenoe of the sun and wind, eo that it be- 
comes considerably denser and more concentrated than 
eoa water. The collection of salt usually takes place 
twice in the year, the first operation is to enclose 
a certain area of the laeoon by means of a dam, 
so as to exclude the influence of the tides, while 
encouraging evaporation, and enabling tue organic 
impurities to settle in the pure water. After a cer- 
tain time, the water is drawn off into shallower and 
smaller basins, when the evaporation is still more 
rapid, and subsequently into the crystallizing beds, 
where the salt is deposited in crusts, varying from 
one to two inches in thickness, and is then drawn 
out. At the factory on the west coast the outturn 
varies from 50,000 to 500,000 cwt, yearly. The work is 
carried on by contractors who own the land, and 
under the supervision of Government officials. 
The southern formations of salt in Ceylon are of 
course those in the " lewayas " or lagoons near 
Hambantota. It is a curious fact that as Ceylon 
has drawn on Dravidian sources for architects, 
sculptors and tank builders, so in the manufac- 
ture of salt in Ceylon natives of the Madras 
Presidency, hereditary salt makers, are employed 
to a considerable extent. 
An extract from the discussion which followed 
the reading of Mr. Simmonds' paper shows the 
correctness of our statement that no means of 
denaturalizing salt for agricultural purposes had 
been discovered: — 
Some years ago the Indian Government offered a 
reward of £25,000 to anyone who would suggest a 
means by which salt could be so far treated as to 
render it unfit for human food, and at the same time 
acceptable for cattle and fit for manure, but up to 
the present time no one had claimed this reward. In 
France they mixed the salt with various kinds of earth, 
making it into the shape of a brick, the object being 
to evade the duty, but the addition of earth added 
considerably to the cost of transport. 
We quote some interesting information regarding 
salt and salt revenue in India: — 
The principal sources of salt production in India 
are the salt range in the Punjab, the salt Lakes of 
Rajputana, a few other scattered salt lakes in various 
parts of the country (such as the Obilka Lake in 
Orissa), sea water, and the European imports of 
about 400,000 tons. Salt is sold from Jd to Id a 
pound, according to the distance it has to be taken, 
on an average it retails at |d a pound,* of which 
two-thirdB go to the Government as duty. The total 
consumption is now about 1,100,000 tons, of which 
700,000 tons is obtained locally. The annual con- 
sumption per head in Bombay is 10J lb., and in Sind 
8 lb. The duty charged is two rupees per maund 
(of 82 lb. ), which brings in a net revenue of over 
£6,000,000 sterling to the Government. 
From figures quoted, it would appear that 
the Indian revenue from salt had risen so high 
in 1882 as £7,305,000, but a reduction in the 
duty had sent the figures down to £6,624,000 in 
1887. To quote again from Mr. Simmonds' paper : — 
There are four kinds of country salt met with in 
the bazaars of India : — 
1. Rock salt, regarded by the natives as the best, 
mainly, because it has not been boiled. It is obtained 
from the Cis-Indus and trans-Indus salt mines. 
2. Sea salt, extensively manufactured in the Madras 
Presidency under a system of Government supervi- 
sion, the revenue obtained being over a million and 
a half pounds sterling. 
3. Lake salt, procured from the Ajmer salt lakes, 
the water naturally evaporating during the hot season. 
4. Earth salt, which is common salt of a very im- 
pure quality, obtained by washing certain soils, f 
In the Madras Presidency a small quantity of 
spontaneous salt is obtained at Kistna (Masulipatam), 
Tanjore, and Madura, but the quantity made is 
declining. 
Figures are given to show that the collection of 
" spontaneous" Bait had gone down from 6 mil- 
* Exactly the figure for Ceylon in 1867, while better 
means of communication must have lowered the 
price since then. — Ed. 
t Now forbidden.— Ed. 
