Frederic G. Mather

“ Of course, the saltmen of Warsaw are as clear-cut protectionists as are their fellow-workers of Syracuse or Saginaw. The duty on foreign salt is eight cents per hundred, or twenty-two cents for a barrel of two hundred and eighty pounds. They argue that salt having dropped from one dollar and eighty cents a barrel in 1860, to seventy cents in 1882, the saving of one dollar and ten cents on a barrel has been an aggregate of seven million dollars to the people of the United States. ”

“ Here alone we have the beds of pure rock-salt. As we come nearer the surface, the presence of the earthy chlorides is more marked, and the product is less valuable, because, by reason of its attracting more moisture from the air, it is rendered unfit for the dairy or the table unless it goes through a process of purification. The conclusion that we must reach, therefore, is, that the deeper the boring goes, the purer the salt will be, whether it is in Michigan or in New York. ”

“ The butter and cheese are of the best quality, and they find a ready sale in Buffalo or in Rochester, either metropolis being less than fifty miles away. This valley, hitherto so peaceful, is now the center of a business activity that bids fair to be permanent, and that will reduce by one the number of staple articles for which the United States has hitherto depended upon foreign countries. ”

“ The "covers" or vats are usually sixteen by eighteen feet, and the product of each one per year is estimated at one hundred and fifty bushels; while the product at Syracuse is only about half that quantity. It is also claimed that the slope of the valley at Warsaw is peculiarly adapted to rapid evaporation by the sun. When the finer grades of salt are wanted, the brine is led from the reservoirs to an evaporating-pan, where a gentle heat is applied. Similar treatment in another pan completes the process, and the residuum of salt is raked upon a shelf at the side of the evaporator. ”

“ In other words, the brine that is reached at a depth of two hundred feet north of the Warsaw Valley offers no superior advantages to that which for many years has been reached at a similar depth on the reservation of the Onondaga Salt-Springs. In deep boring and pure salt lie the best hopes of the Warsaw product. ”

“ In regard to the Saginaw brine, also, it is claimed that its residuum after evaporation is ninety-seven per cent of pure salt; while that of the Warsaw brine is one hundred—a difference which, if sustained, would amply cover the increased cost of fuel at Warsaw. The salt-men of Warsaw, too, have the greatest confidence that their borings for natural gas will result in giving them a fuel even cheaper than culm. The Warsaw men also declare that their own enterprises are on private land ”

“ With such an apparatus, the cost of boring is from seventy-five cents to one dollar per foot for operating expenses. The workmen serve in gangs—two for each twenty-four hours—and the wages are one dollar and fifty cents per day. ”