The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-07
THE MAKING OF SALT.
Rrof. Carson Writes Interestingly OF
mo Great salt Works at Cayuga
Lake. New York.


Ithica. N. T.. July 27.-Salt? Yes
Any sort you wish, fine table, fin,
household. coarse. ice-cream or Asl
salt. anything. all pure and clean ant
ready for the market. But where doe,
u come frim. there's plenty Of salf
water In the ocean. they boil tina
down and thte salt crystallizes out
That salt. very true. In France there
are salt works where they allow ses
Watee to aow into great ponds at high
tide and then keep It there until Il
evaporates sufficiently. when they boil
" on and set the salt which crystal
dzes ost. Again In Hungary there are
'atit mines where rock salt IL due
froa depths below three thousand
aAst- Our salt. however. doesn't como
nsm the ocean nor do We ship II In
from Hungary. Cayuga Lake Is q
beautiful body Of fresh water which
nils the path Of an old glacier. yet
mere right on the edge Of the lake Is
q large plant manufacturing immense
quantities OF salt. However. they
don't Set II from the lake. In boring
near the edge of the lake for an ar
&esian well. a bed Of rock salt was
struck and that Is where the salt
comes from. There are several wells.
'Wstcr is pumped into them and when
IL has dissolved the. salt and has be-
come saturated is pumped out again
into great storage tanks placed way
up on the side of the Mill From
these tanks II flows into tanks. heated
by steam. the water gradually evap-
'orating e. concentrated solution.
The concentrated mother liquid
nows into the long "crystallizing"
tank where the salt crystallizes out.
1t Is there separated into grades. sift-
Ad ana dried by roasting. A part Is
dried more than the rest and this Is
sths f'ne table salt which is put into
nttle b~ss holding only few pounds.
Tho rest Ia heaped into great piles on
sfhe warehouse floor. The various
Grades each In a separate pile and
,suoh ps3es You know the beautiful
white. anely crystallized salt we buy
6or absut seventy cents a hundred
pounds; just think Of pile of 1t over
ono hundred feet long. thirty feet
high and nearly another hundred feet
Uide. That's what you could see to-
day n you visited the salt works. Be-
nadss this immense pile Of fine salt
there wore great piles Of meat saft,
and other coarser grades and at least
. 5000 siscd dining room full Of yell
Sowish Ash salt was left OF what they
~'eav working on. On the great pile
of nne salt were several gangs of men
at work. some shoveling with COM
mon shovels. the salt into bags, 9TH
on holding the bags open and weigh
ING them when filled. Fifty six
pounds and hardly ever miss IT,"
answered one Of the weighers an he
placed the sack on the scales with one
hand and reached for an empty sack
with the other. and though we watch
% him q good while the scales regu
nary showed the same thing. Sewing
sacks was the work Of two young fell
lows. and II certainly didn't = take
ehon ieng To fix sack "ears" and all,
nfteen seconds from the time he cut
fhe thread from one sack until he cut
aha thread from another seemed to us
pretty quick work. Evidently he was
paid by the piece and he was max
ing a good days work for all over one
aide OF the warehouse were stacks OF
sacks sewed and ready for shipment
while there was enough salt left
well I guess 1t will keep him busy a
few days longer.
Beyond the warehouse were the
docks. where several scows were be-
Ing loaded with salt for shipment UP
the lake and several cars were also
being alftd for shipment by rail.
The Ground Il places was covered
with salt where little streams of salty
water trickled from the tanks. Sal,
crust was white over all the machin.
cry and from the tanks long stalact.
ttes of salt hung from every point
The pump room looked looked like {
great cavern In ice and on every side
WINS the drip. drip of the water. Sc
you don't get your salt from tn,
OCEAN. but from salt wells and sal
springs In the central part of thi
Ssate OF many industries.
A. G. c.
IYhica NJ W I,t,, o. .ooo