MANUFACTURE OF SALT. 
Ill 
Manufacture of Salt. 
Under this head, my object is to present a few facts intended to exhibit the advantages 
which the Onondaga springs possess, and to offer some suggestions concerning the modes of 
manufacture pursued at the works in their vicinity. 
The existence of brine springs on the banks of the Onondaga lake, was made known by 
the Indians to the late Comfort Tyler, Esq. in the year 1788. The manufacture of salt was 
soon after commenced, but it was for some years conducted on a very limited scale, and in 
the rudest manner. Since the completion of the Erie canal, the salt-works have been greatly 
improved, and the amount of salt annually manufactured has, with few exceptions, been 
steadily increasing from year to year, as is shown by the annexed statement: 
Table showing the amount of Salt inspected annually at the Onondaga Salt-Works, 
from 1826 to 1841. 
YEARS. 
BUSHELS. 
YEARS. 
BUSHELS. 
1826, . 
. 827,508 
1834, ....... 
__ 1,943,252 
1827, . 
. 983,410 
1835, .. 
. 2,209,867 
1828,. 
.. 1,160,888 
1836, . 
. 1,912,858 
1829, .. 
.. 1,291,280 
1837, . 
. 2,161,287 
1830,. 
.. 1,435,446 
1838, .. 
. 2,575,033 
1831, . 
.. 1,514,037 
1839, . 
. 2,864,718 
1832,. 
. 1,652,985 
1840, .. 
. 2,622,305 
1833,. 
__ 1,838,646 
1841, . 
.. 3,134,317 
If our estimate of the amount of brine raised by the pumps in operation at Syracuse, 
Salina, Liverpool and Geddes, be correct, we have a total of 44,760 gallons in an hour, or 
1,074,240 gallons in twenty-four hours. If the same amount was raised for three hundred 
days, it would give a total of 322,272,000 gallons of brine ; which, allowing fifty gallons of 
brine to a bushel of salt, would yield 6,445,400 bushels. This allowance, I think, is sufficient 
to cover all unavoidable loss in the manufacture; as it appears from the analyses that have 
been given, that in all the brines, forty-five gallons actually contain a bushel of common salt 
in its ordinary state of purity. 
The following statement will show that heretofore there has been a great waste of brine. 
In the year 1836, the three pump works were in operation at Salina, Syracuse and Geddes, 
about two hundred and fifty days. During this period there were raised not less than_ 
230,000,000 of gallons of brine, while the amount of salt made during that year fell short of 
2,000,000 bushels. At least 100,000,000 of gallons of brine, therefore, were lost; and al¬ 
though this may seem to be a matter of small moment, it will, when properly considered, be 
found of some importance. The State, it is true, is more interested in it than the manufac- 
