Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-06-05
The TRADE IN SALT.

- tbe United states Have tO import b
~" much of This Commodity.
..Not many people know that in spite
.,,be wonderful salt wells and salt de-
Its In this country we annually i'm
p port immense quantities Of salt" said
TN Miller, a commission merchant,
tho other day. '..Our importations are
constantly increasing. too, although the
.a,out of our own salt factories keeps
n.ce with the growth of the population,
nd there is a considerable duty on all
t;nds of salt. The reason is that GER
tain fine grades and special kinds Of
Iii arc not made in this country. You
,.n get about as good dairy or table
..,t from the New York or Michigan
wells az from anywhere in the world.
Int YOU can't get the coarse salt used
IN packing meats for export. the quickly
dissolving Turk Island salt used in the
ice cream factories, nor the curious
snanish salts that the street-car COM
NAMES sprinkle on their tracks when
thew think Henry Bergh isn't looking.
All the domestic salt. except that which
& mined in Louisian.. is made by evap-
Grating, by artificial heat, brine pumped
ont of the earth. The very valuable
coarse salt which we import is made by
cooperating sea water in the open air.
Il made where people can afford to
wait three or four months for few
dollars. Where's thatp- Well, along
the Mediterranean. for instance. The
people there dam up little bay and
wait till the sun and the winds have
carried the water away. 1t isn't very
pure salt that they scrape up off the
mud, but it is indispensable for some
purposes.
"The experiment of making solar salt
has been tried in this country. but with
out much success. The quality of the
sea water varies a good deal. 1t will
deposit one kind of salt on one island
and another perceptibly different, even
to the eye, on another island perhaps
not more than forty miles away. We
do an immense trade with the West
Indies in salt. There are a dozen
places that furnish altogether different
kinds of salt. and each has its particu-
lar use. One very fine and easily
soluble variety is used in the fayorine
of chewing tobacco. Not many chewer;
know that. but they would find out
very quickly that something was lack
ing if the salt should be omitted. Some
physicians have thought that the pres
ence of the salt makes the tobacco very
injurious.
There isn't SO much English dair,
salt imported as there used to be. A
one time manufacturers of fine butte
thought that their products would b.
utterly ruined if any thing but fine En-
glish salt touched them. 1t isn't 81
now. For one reason, American salt
makers have learned the trick of maxim;
good dairy salt, and for another, Ameri
can salt has got to be wonderfully cheap
Out in the Saginaw region of Michigan
the salt wells are right by the side @
the big lumber mills. All that is neces
sary is to attach to the mill machiner.
apump to draw up the brine and fee
the saw-dust and timber waste, whicl
would otherwise be thrown away, to tn
evapo, ating kettles. In that way sal
can be made for about twelve cents
bushel Gentlemen who own salt well
and lumber mills in Michigan are usual
rich enough to buy out an ordinar
State.--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.