East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1860-12-27
EAs II sAGIN Aw
SALT

position, where for the asking, she might
have received any gift in her election, at
the hands Of an all wise Providence,s all the
wisdom Of her sages, wise men aud poll
ticians, even-and their sagacity is truly
marvellous - would have failed to effect
50 wise choice, as has been made by the
bestowal OF the .inexhaustible saline de.
posits underlying u.s. Kingdoms may
totter and fall, republics be discovered
and broken up, and the hope of "tho
down.trodden millions" of the earth be
blotted ont forever, and still the poor
man must have "salt for his porridge,"
and the luxurious meal Of the millionaire
is Fat, stale and impalatable without that
saliferous pungency which is the basis of
the choicest seasoning. It's uses for the
prolongation o. animal and vegetable lie
and for the preservation of meats, fish,
and cured vegetables are multifarious,
and daily new discoveries arc made of its
adaptation to mans wants. In its manu-.
facture large amount of labor, and a
liberal outlay Of capital is required large
quantities Of fuel are consumed, and by
this means the country cleared and set
tied the wilderness made to blossom as
the rosc," and vast but stable and healthy
business operations cnsendcred and ad
vanced. Take for instance the one small
well which has been in operation here
since the first Of last July, as basis Of
calculation, and see what the result will
be when the business is increased ten
fold, even, as it will be by the first of next
May. Ten cords of wood are now used
daily; multiplied by ten, and the amount
is one hundred cords, clearing daily two
acres of land for the fuel used in the salt
business alone, not to mention the timber
required for buildings, barrels, &C., and
this in the second salifcrous year of the
Valley. One hundred men are now in
the business, and we confidently predict
that by the close of the year 1861, over
FIVE hundred men will be engaged either
directly of indirectly in the salt opera
tons, and that at least two thousand of
orr inhabitants will be more or less de-
pendent upon these enterprises for their
support. Success has thus far crowned
the elfortsof all who have gone with their
borings to the depth indicated by geolo-
gists as the bed of the great basin, and
there is now no more doubt that we have
in this valley the best salt reservoir in
the world, than there is that the waters
of the ocean have to a slight extent a
saline impregation. Our facilities for a
market for salt are unequaled by those Of
any section Of the Union, the minera!
, regions of Lake Superior which must in
time become largely populated; Canada,
all sections Of which we have access to
through "the Goderich route" tho Great
West, which we reach to the very limits
Of civilization through the lake States Of
Wisconsin and Illinois our own State
and those south of it, with which we
must ultimately have a railroad conneo-
ton by means of an extension of the
Flint and Pere Marquette to the Detroit
and milwaukee railway, are oil convenicn,
and easy Of access, and to Canada and
the west, lines Of sail or steam craft arc
already established.
In consideration Of these advantages
} we shall receive, and are even now re-
ceiving, vast additions to our capital and
population, and an increase of the salt
business in the next three years in proper.
ton to what it has been in the last twelve
months, will make Saginaw Valley the
great mart of the northwest for the
manufacture and sale of that indispensi
bic commodity,
In this connection we publish an able
and interesting article from the Patent
Office Report of 1859, upon the
Importance of Salt In Agriculture.
If we should ask why so enormous a
quantity Of this ihestimable gift of salt is
+ distributed throughout the earth; why
threa fourths of the surface of the planet
designed for the home of man is covered
with it? the answer would be: In order
to preserve the work of Nature, to enable
+ man the more readily to sustain himself
and TO make him weather. and better
1t has become an indispensable condition
for the existence of man, and his ciyiliza.
ton. In oil organic beings we meet with
two processes that OF life and that Of
decomposition--the latter beginning its
full activity after the former has achieved
its end, at the moment when organic be.
ings are dissolved into those constituents
from which the plant was formed and