i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
8n 
eyes accustomed to the sunlight do not readily adapt 
themselves to the dim, flickering light of mines. In a 
short time your eyes are all right, and you get an idea of 
what a salt mine really is. The photograph from which 
the accompanying plate was made—see Figure 392—was 
taken a short distance from the shaft, and shows the main 
gangway and several of the side drifts. The men are at 
work in the first stratum of salt, which is about 15 feet 
thick. Twelve feet beneath is another one 60 feet thick, 
and computations by statisticians prove that there is 
enough salt beneath the company’s 600 acres to last 1,000 
years at the present rate of mining. The main gangway 
is about nine feet high and from 12 to 24 feel wide, and 
this, as well as the drifts, was blasted out of solid salt. 
The salt is now being mined from the side drifts, of which 
there are some 25 or 30, and the process of mining is very 
similar to that used in the anthracite coal 
regions. First holes are drilled in the salt, 
with drills worked by compressed air which 
is forced from the surface and conveyed 
through iron pipes to the drills. Next 
dynamite cartridges are inserted into the 
orifices made by the drills, connection is 
made with the electric wires, the work¬ 
men remove to a safe distance, the gang 
boss turns on the current, a dull, heavy ex¬ 
plosion is heard and a mass of loose rock 
salt awaits the workmen who load it on 
the cars. 
There are several miles of railroad track 
in the mine, and the grades are so easy that 
one mule draws a load of three tons with¬ 
out any gr*at effort. After the car is loaded 
it is drawn to the shaft, the gong rings, 
and in about the length of time it takes 
to tell about it the salt is dumped into the 
crushers way up in the top of the head 
house 130 feet above the surface. The air 
down in the mine is pure and sweet, al¬ 
though it has a slight chloric smell and 
saline taste, and the temperature is about 
60 degrees. If one had ever had an idea that there was 
romance about mining, that idea would be exploded after 
seeing the roughly dressed miners, some with candles and 
others with kerosene lamps in their hats, work an hour or 
so at their hard, unpleasaut tasks. At present there are 13 
mules in the mine and they stay there all the time. When 
not at work they are kept in a stable with salt roof, walls 
and floor, and are fed on oats and baled hay. Not far from 
the stable is a first class blacksmith shop, and as the busy 
smith hammers away at his anvil, sharpening the drills 
and other tools, he makes a cheery picture in sharp con¬ 
trast with the dull surroundings. The salt in the mine is 
of a dark gray color and looks not unlike common rock; 
but as It is crushed and pulverized it grows whiter until 
the finest salt is as fine and white as any flour, and 99-44/ 
100 pure. Entering the cage again you soon reach the sur¬ 
face and take a renewed delight in the fresh air, green 
trees, and deep blue of heaven, after your brief experience 
in the Retsof mine. The daily output runs from 400 to 
600 tons, and every 24 hours 40 cars on the average aie 
shipped to the different parts of America. The great bulk 
of the salt is shipped to the West, much of it being used 
by the Chicago and Kansas City packing houses, and a 
considerable quantity is sent in the lump to the cattle 
ranches for stock purposes. That the company could sell 
all the salt they could get there is no doubt, as they are 
constantly behind their orders. In order to increase their 
capacity they are putting down anew shaft, the same size 
as the first, and 25 rods away from it. Shaft No. 2 is down 
about 900 feet, and when completed will connect with the 
main gangway. It will be used for lowering the miners 
and supplies, and for improving the circulation, so that 
the main shaft will be devoted solely to raising salt. There 
are now employed in the mine and around the buildings 
500 men, over half of whom are Italians, but as consider¬ 
able skilled labor is employed the pay roll is very large. 
The Retsof Salt Company has come to stay. The mine 
is a decidedly paying property, and will grow more valu¬ 
able year by year, and the concern deserves all the pros¬ 
perity it will get. As I have said, this is the only salt mine 
in America to day. 1 could not say that several years hence, 
for a New York company has just i roken ground at 
Livonia Station for a shaft of the same size as the Retsof, 
and a Chicago corporation is sinking a test well on lauds 
adjoining the Retsof property, with the intention of putting 
down a shaft in the near future. Who can tell but that 20 
years from now all our salt will be mined, instead 
evaporated, as now. EDWARD f. dibble. 
Livingston County, N. Y. 
me to mark only across the hill, and I have never yet seen 
a case which was not in favor of that mode of cultivating. 
It is harder work for the man to cultivate across the hill; 
but it is easier for the horse, as he can cultivate half an 
acre more in a day across than up and down. 
Belmont County, O. e w. sears. 
Less Trouble With Rows Across. 
I have had less trouble in washing by making the rows 
across the hill side. By keeping the rows as flat as possi¬ 
ble the extra water runs directly across the row, and is not 
held until it forms'enough head to wash a gutter. Washing 
of the soil is caused more by the velocity of the water than 
the volume, and when the rows run up and down there 
is not a very great volume in any one row, but the velo¬ 
city is unchecked, and in our soil (a gravelly loam) a gut¬ 
ter is formed between every row and the richness of the 
BUILDINGS OF RETSOF SALT COMPANY. Fig. 39 1 
soil is carried to the plain below, provided there is a sharp, 
heavy rain storm. By rowing across the hill side the water 
is largely prevented from obtaining a headway and being 
thus held, a much larger amount is absorbed by the ground, 
so that there is much less to do injury, and so much more 
is kept where it will do the most good. I follow the same 
idea in regard to other crops, and do not let such land lie 
any longer than I can help with the cultivator or harrow 
marks runningup and down the hill. r. j. c. 
Jonesville, Mich. 
Will Plant “ Up and Down.” 
Taking everything into consideration, I would prefer to 
plant up and down the hill. I planted across the hill last 
year and lost nearly half my crop. It happened to be a 
very wet season. Had I planted up and down the wash¬ 
out would not have been so great and I would have saved 
my crop. The upper half kept in very good shape but the 
lower part was flooded with sandy loam. It was impossi¬ 
ble to find any of the potato hills near the foot of the hill. 
Chittenden County, Vt. o. h. Alexander. 
Wash Worse; But Some Tools Work Better Up 
and Down. 
I have had considerable experience in raising potatoes on 
hilly land, and, in my opinion, the wash will be greater 
when the rows run up and down hill. Perhaps during a 
very heavy shower they might wash more when the rows 
are the other way; but in any moderate rain more of the 
water would be absorbed by having a check in each row. 
I plant up and down the hill, however, as I use the Aspin- 
wall Planter and a Hoover Digger, and they work better 
in crops planted in that way. e. b. true. 
Orleans County, Vt. 
Potatoes on Hill-sides. 
Some years since many of the farmers in this section, got 
the idea that if potatoes were planted and worked up and 
down the hill, each row would carry its own water and the 
there were only a few deep gutters which were soon filled 
up by the plow after digging. Our potato ground is almost 
all on hill-sides or on hill tops and the farmer who has not 
10 acres is not considered much of a potato grower. I think 
I may safely say that a storm heavy enough to cause the 
water to break over a crosswise row would wash off most 
of the loose soil in an up and-down one. c. H. eveuett. 
Steuben County, N. Y. 
Cultivation of Hill Land. 
The same question applies to all sorts of crops anu 
plowing for them on hilly ground. For several years I 
have been growing crops on land which slopes so much 
that, unless skillfully managed, thesoil washes Injuriously, 
and I have, I think, studied out this question satisfactor¬ 
ily. There are three ways of plowing sloping ground: 
first on a level, following the grade, covering so that the 
furrows hold the water; second, plowing 
up and down so that each furrow carries 
its own water directly down the slope, and, 
third, making the furrows on the slope 
with such gentle inclination that they will 
hold the water without overflowing, and 
retain it long enough to be all absorbed 
by the soil without any washing at all. I 
have scarcely a square rod of ground in any 
of my fields where a full pail could be placed 
so as to retain two-thirds of its water, but 
after one year’s practice of the diagonal 
method, there has not been the slightest 
washing even with a rainfall of 10 inches 
in 12 hours. 
Level furrows will fill with water and 
flow over, thus overflowing and breaking 
out all below and causing a washout; up- 
and-down furrows will make a wash in each 
one, exposing the roots and carrying down 
soil until an obstacle is met, when a dam is 
made and the overflow then takes in the 
adjoining furrows. A large amount of 
land is thus damaged and utterly spoiled 
in places. But when the furrows are 
slight slope down the hill, the land is as 
as if the furrow's were level, and if the 
a 
of 
THE CULTIVATION OF HILL LAND. 
On page 723 a Pennsylvania subscriber wishes to know 
if the soil will wash away worse if potatoes are planted up 
and down the hill than if they are planted otherwise. The 
potato planter worked best with him up and down hill. 
Tnis question was submitted to our readers and it ap¬ 
pears, from the following answers, that many of them are 
cultivating hill sides and that this matter is of great im¬ 
portance to them. 
A Bit of Experience. 
In the spring of ’87 I check-rowed a field of corn on a 
hill-side, and in cultivating aimed to work both ways at 
the same time, as nearly as possible, and give it the last 
cultivation across the hill; but when I had about half done 
cultivating it up and down 1 was stopped by a hard rain, 
and on going out to see the damage, was surprised to find 
so bad a gully in every up and down cultivated row that 
the crop was injured, while on the other part scarcely any 
of the soil was gone, and no injury had in any other way 
been done. Similar experience the next season as well as 
observation with regard to my neighbors’ fiedds, decided 
Interior of Salt'Mine. Fig. 392. 
soil would not be washed away as badly as if the rows ran 
crosswise; but at present no one would think of running 
the rows that way. We work our potatoes 'both ways, 
being very careful after we have gone up and down the 
hill to go sidewise as soon as possible for fear of a rain 
hard enough to break from one row to another, for it 
would surely wash all the loose soil away. We are very 
careful to mark out the ground very straight up and 
down and sideways, without regard to the shape of the 
field. A few years ago I planted a field, which was in the 
shape of a large knoll, so that a row would be both up and 
down and otherwise. I commenced plantiug on one side and 
planted it all in the same direction, covering it with a cov- 
erer; it had been planted but a few days when a very heavy 
storm visited us and tberowstliatwereplanted up and down 
were almost ruined, the loose soil having been almost all 
washed away and also some of the seed; while in the others 
made with 
easily plowed 
plowing has been deep the soil will hold all the water 
even with a fall of one inch or more in an hour, and absorb 
it without any damage. If there is any flow from the fur¬ 
row it will escape at the headland and spread there with¬ 
out any injury. Four years ago I had corn planted in a 
field the slope of which is from 20 to 30 degrees, and which 
had been badly washed before it came into my possession. 
The land was very stony. I plowed it eight inches deep 
and had all the stones, as far as possible, pulled down into 
the furrows and covered at the next turn. By carefully 
harrowing with an Acme the stones were not disturbed. 
The corn crop was an excellent one: not a furrow was dis¬ 
turbed by the rains all through the season, or in the next 
winter; rye was sown in the eorn, and Timothy and clover 
in the spring. Now the field is in excellent condition and 
all danger of washing is passed as long as the land is cov¬ 
ered with grass and until the next plowing, when the sod 
will be turned over. The same method adopted with my 
other fields has stopped washing completely. 
There are two necessary requirements—thorough plow¬ 
ing to a regular depth of eight inches, and a slope just suffi¬ 
cient to cause each furrow to keep its own water. This 
avoids the extra labor of plowing up hill, and by using a 
hill side or swivel plow, every furrow is turned the same 
way, while in plowing a hill side with an ordinary plow, 
good work cannot be done in turning a furrow up the 
slope. Every year I have planted my potatoes in the same 
way, always on sloping land, for I have no level ground, 
and have had no trouble. The buried stones on stony 
ground have a very useful effect in holding water and 
keeping the soil moist, and the extra labor of covering them 
up is well repaid, especially when the land is to be seeded 
with grass and clover, or either. henry stewart. 
Macon County, N. C. 
Side Rows Hold Moisture. 
I have about five acres of hill-side that I plant either to 
corn or potatoes every three or four years. The rows run 
both ways. I cultivate up and down the first time and side¬ 
ways the last. If I use a hiller I use it sideways the last 
time. I believe I am right. Hill-sides are usually dry. 
Potatoes always do the best in a wet season ; consequently 
they require considerable water. The showers we have 
during the summer are usually of short duration, but con¬ 
siderable water falls. If the rows are up and down the 
hill, the water will all run off; whereas, if they run side¬ 
ways, a large portion of it is retained. As far as ease of 
cultivation is concerned, I would prefer to row up and 
down. The hardest work I have to do in the cultivation 
of either corn or potatoes on a hill side is holding a culti¬ 
vator. I have to walk one row below in order to keep it 
where it should be—behind the horse. If the hill is not 
very long up and down, there can be no danger from wash¬ 
ing if the rows should run up and down; but if the rows 
are long, during a heavy shower nearly every row will be 
more or less injured toward the bottom from washing. If 
the hill is long and the rows go sideways and more water 
falls than can be readily taken up by the ground and it 
fills up between the rows so that it overflows, there Is no 
question that it will break over and wash its way to the 
foot of the hill. In this case I do not think the damage 
would be as great as if the rows ran up and down. My 
opinion from actual experience is that working in rows up 
and down the hill is easier for the man, but harder for the 
horse. If the hill is long, a greater damage is sustained by 
washing if the rows go up and down. If the hill is long or 
short, we get the greatest benefit from showers when the 
rows run sideways; therefore I prefer that they should 
do so. c. M. LUSK. 
Broome County, N. Y. 
