The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-07
SALT PRODUCTION
 IN UNITED STATES This Country Now Leads the
 Whole World MICHIGAN LEADS THEM ALL In New York Water Is Pumped Into Mine to Dissolve the Salt and Is
 Then Pumped Out and
 Evaporated.
MICHIGAN LEADS THEM ALL
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.

Among the many industries in which the United States leads all other countries is the production of salt. The first record of salt making in this country was at Onaa- daga lake in 17SS, when brine was reduced In a kettle over an open fire. Since then deposits have been discovered in many states and salt has been made from sea water on the oceans and at Salt Lake, where the Mormon church is large pro- ducer, New York and Michigan produce at present from two-thirds to three fourths of the total product. In round numbers this country produces 5000 LOO tons annually, compared to Great Bri- tains 100000 Russla's 100000, Germany s 1 300 GOO, Frances 1,3OO,000 and Indias l. 200, GOO.
 The largest salt producing state is Mich l igan, yet less than fifty years ago, when the East Saginaw Salt Manufacturing company asked the Michigan legislature l for bounty of ten cents barrel on salt made in the state, the enterprise was re- garded humorously. member of the leg islature moved the adoption of amend ment making the bounty ten cents bush el and 1t was adopted. The bill was changed to the original text however. before 1t was passed, and the state refus- 1 ed payment when a bounty on 4,000 bar rels was claimed at the end of the first i year. The case went to the highest court i before settlement was secured. Within the last forty years the product in Michigan has expanded from 4000 barrels a year to l 100000
 New York Is next to Michigan as q salt producer. and has an interesting history | In the industry. When large beds of rock salt were found near Syracuse, the prob l lem of how to work the mines profitably was presented. To the genius of w. B. Cogswell, noted mining engineer, was due the development of the deposits. l was found that the beds, although deep in l the earth, were upon a higher level than Syracuse Mir. Cogswell hit upon the idea of siphoning the brine to Syracuse for | evaporation. He drove a well to the salt 1 bed, putting one pipe inside of another. and by forcing fresh water down the large 1 pipe. and creating suction through the smaller one, he produced a stream of brine which has since been supplying the i salt works. This Yankee trick made salt making practicable in that locality, and i since that time Syracuse has been a grea t l salt and soda center.
 Until the Colorado river overflowed the Salton Sink in California, near the Mex l ican border, and destroyed the industry there, salt was made in basin 26i feet l below level in temperature so high that none but Japanese and Coahuila Tn- dians could be persuaded to undertake the 1 labor. The sink, 1000 acres in extent was covered with crust of salt formed by the l specialization of the waters of salt springs draining into It. The crust was dazzling white and from ten to twenty inches i thick. It was plowed into ridges with q broad shallow steam blow, stacked in cones, washed, sacked and hauled to the mills. By moonlight the sink was a strangely beautiful picture, the effect be- Ing that of a field of snow in a tropical desert Tn daytime there were often mir ages in which Towering fields and majes- | tic cities could be seen. The places pro- duced about 700 tons of salt a day.
 In 1890 the legislative council of Florida passed an act incorporating the LaFay- cite Salt works which had capital stock l of $75,00o000, and it was predicted that saltmaking by evaporating water from i the shallows about the Florida Keys would be the most remuneratlve industry in the United States. but very little came of 1t. In Massachusetts salt is made of sea water by evaporation, but the indus try is not a large one. New York's salt Is made by dissolvlng the rock salt hun dreds of feet below the surface and re- crystalizing 1t. Pennsylvania, Ohio and 1 West Virginia have salt wells. Virginia l produces rock salt at Saltsville in the Holston valley. In Kansas rock salt Is mined directly as we'll as produced from wells in the form of brine. Louisiana l rock salt Is mined, and great galleries ex- l tend under the earth, some of them be- l ing 200 feet long, seventy-hve feet wide and siXty-f1ve feet deep. On Jefferson Is- land borings nearly 2D0O feet deep have not extended entirely through the rock salt Oklahoma salt is produced from the evap- | oration of brine flowing from springs | along the Cimarron river. Texas pro duces a considerable quantity of salt by evaporating the water of lagoons on the gulf coast, and from wells located mostly in Van Zandt and Anderson counties. In New Mexico, Idaho, UtalEand Nevada are many shallow lake basiHs from which salt is made by simple evaporation Since the Salton Sink has been flooded Califor- nias only production of this commodity l in commercial quantities Is from sea wa l ter evaporated under peculiarly favorable i conditions on the east side of San Fran cisco bay.
 A salt trade fight that benefited the l consumer was one waged between Kan sas, Ohio and New York, for the control Of tho sale of ground rock salt. A Cleve- land business man who loved a trade fight for its own sake determined to achiev, | supremacy in this market He decided that housekeepers were not interested in cut prices on a commodity so cheap as salt had grown, and he set out to im- prove the quality. To his efforts and i those Of his competitors, are due the fact 1 that America now has table salt tha [ does not clog in the cruet. At the Co., l lumbian exposition he exhibited his prod uet in an immense hour glass through which it ran like dry sand.
 The United States became the leading salt producing country in 1897, outrankng Great Britain by per cent. The follow ing year the United States gained and Great Britain lost in production, and in | 1899 the United States increase wes neail ly l eight times s much as that of her rival. While the production of the various coun- tries fiuctuates the United States is we'll ahead at present, with large undevelopel l resources. Because of the low pric ss obtained at the works, the fuel question determines largely the profit in salt-mak : | ing in this country In Michigan the salt and lumber interests have long been di- 1 lied and the fuel used has been to a l great eXtent sa wdust and other mill offaI. | the removal of which would put the ium : l herman to actual expense if it were not so disposed Of In Pomery. O., salt works 1 are situated at the entrance of coal