Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/548

534 Devonian ocean. 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. Following out the logical deduction of this conclusion, we must admit that while the outcroppings of salt toward the northern edge of the New York field might offer superior inducements in the way of securing the brine, yet the brine when secured would be so much weaker and more impure that the decreased cost of producing it would be more than offset. 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.

The relative value of brine from the various salt-producing localities is shown by the following table, which gives the number of gallons of brine required to make one bushel of salt:

Not only is it claimed that the Warsaw salt is superior to any other for the packing of meats and the uses of the dairy, but also that it is the sole product in the United States from which soda-ash can be manufactured. This article is used for bleaching, dyeing, soap-making, and several other processes. Hitherto it has been imported to the value of millions of dollars yearly, because no brine of sufficient strength could be found in the United States. Attempts to use the brine of Canada and Ohio have utterly failed. At last the brine of Syracuse was tried, and it was found that by being chemically treated and salted it would serve the purpose. Large amounts of capital are already invested in the strengthening of the Syracuse brine; but it is