Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-22
AFRICA NEEDS SALT.
Substitutes Used by Natives-Dif1cul-
ties of Transportation. H.
From the New York Sun.

ties Of Transportation. =,
From the New York Sun.
The human race Graves salt and so do
many varieties of the brute creation. This
need is abundantly supplied in most parts
OF the world, for few minerals are more
widely and conveniently distributed.
Everybody living along the seashore or
near saline marshes can make his own
salt if necessary. Scores of African tribes
utilize such resources, the crude and dirty
product satisfying their wants Many
others rarely obtain salt, but they have
a substitute for it. There are two kinds
of plants from which the substitute is
manufactured. The plants are dried and
then burned. The ashes are leached and
the I've is evaporated, the residue being
used as salt. 1t is sorry substitute, but
contains the essential principle and salts
fees, in a way, the craving for salt.
In inner Africa, from near the west
coast to the great lakes and from the Sa-
hara to the Zambesi river of South Africa
there are no salt mines or salt pans or
other sources of the condiment; and here
live about 125.Oo0.o00 people. more than
half the population of the great CONT
nent. They offer the greatest unsupplied
market for salt in the world. 1t is of them
that DR.. c. Muller recently wrote that
they would buy 100000 tons year if
they could get it.
Europe is now supplying the tribes
along the west coast of Africa with about
10000 tons year, most of 1T coming from
the rock salt beds of the Norwich dis
trict in England though few thousand
tons of German salt is imported. Unfor-
tunately, none of this salt can be carried
far inland.
moist and hot conditions of the tropical
climate. 1t loses its SAVIOR and its virtue
wholly disappears.
1t may be kept fairly dry and unim-
nj nd yuh ar a in r
but it is the transportation on the backs
of men, in the native canoes and by other
rude means of carriage, that causes it to
deteriorate. The result Is that the COM
merce in European salt does not extend
inland more than about 100 miles.
All the salt that this vast inland region
obtains comes from three centers of pro-
duction, from the salt pans and other de-
posits in the Sahara. This salt Is very
impure and it's color-red. black or gray
is derived from the foreign substances
in it; but the process of preparation
makes it possible to transport it great
distances. .a-..-
1t is put up in bars three feet in length,
about foot wide and four or five inches
thick. The bar weighs from fifty to sixty
pounds. 1t is about hard as any rock
and when the salt is used it has to be
broken and pounded to pieces. 1t stands
the rough native transportation perfectly
and suffers little or no deterioration,
though it is carried from 1920 to 1900
miles south of the Sahara.
This Is the famous block salt of Africa.
1t is in limited supply considering the great
demand. but it is one of the largest trade
articles in inner Africa, and is highly priced
throughout the Sudan. in the Congo basin
and southwark to the Zambesi.
Row our houSekeepers would grumb,e II
they had to pay for salt the price that these
poor, barbarous blacks are glad to have a
chance to pay for it! When camels deliver
it at Timbuktu, on the edge of the desert.
1t sells for 20 cents kilogramme, or about
two and half pounds
In the southern part of the Sudan II Is
worth 40 cents; down near the Congo river
1t is worth so cents. and further south the
price Is still higher. Transportation 10
costly and every midd.eman. of course,
must have his profit.
The great question is How can the civ
iized nations enter the field and supply the
enormous demand for the commodity they
produce SO cheaply? There is q chance for
big profit in 1t, and the fact is fully real
lied by the producers of Europe They
cannot improve the opportunity unless they
find some means of making their salt as
transportable as that of the Sahara.
The English have tried COMPRISING salt
for the African trade. but have not yet
procured an article that will withstand the
excessive moisture and heat. One French
company, La Societe MarseiIlaise du Sci
Aggiomere. on the other hand assert that
they have solved the problem.
They are COMPRISING salt into about
two~thirds of its cubical contents as or
dinarily put on the market, and the result
ing blocks have glistening surface and
are as hard as a stone. They are sending
1t out into the French colonies
1t remains to be seen whether 1t will with
stand the moisture and rains of tropical
Africa. If it meets the need it will be wei
coined as boon in Africa, and will line the
pockets of those who make and sell IL