Being designed to connect one point with another, in the most direct line practicable, a choice of direction cannot always be controlled. But it may, and doubtless will, sometimes happen that by a slight deviation in the proposed direction, a road may be conducted through a soil better adapted to durability than that, through which it would have run, if a direct line had been pursued. So when a road is to be repaired, the earth or stone taken for the purpose, should be of the proper quality. If they are hard and durable, the road will be so: but if they are of a different character, the expense of repairing must be again incurred. A very great misapplication of time and money might unquestionably be avoided by attending to principles, which too rarely, it is feared, enter into the consideration of questions of this sort, and a due regard to which would conduce as much to the convenience of the public as to the interest of those more immediately concerned in them. In Onondaga, Albany and Rensselaer counties, deep beds of shell marl have been found. In the two latter, they occur in connexion with gravelly soils, to which they may be most advantageously applied.* Similar beds are doubtless to be found in other parts of the State, and probably in situations where they may be profitably used as a manure. To soils deficient in calcareous ingredients they are of great value. The geological and topographical survey of the State of Maryland, now in progress under the direction of Messrs. Ducatel & Alexander, has already produced a very able and valuable account by the gentleman first named of the marl beds in that State, and the mode of rendering them beneficial to its agriculture. By this account, it appears that of the several species of shells found in marl beds, some decompose more readily than others, and that the utility of the marl, as a fertilizer of the soil, depends not only upon the species of shells contained in it, but also on the nature of the cement by which the shells are often held together. Sometimes they are united by an argillo-ferruginous cement, and in such cases the marl is considered useless, and to some soils positively injurious. Whether the observations of Mr. Ducatel on the marl beds of Maryland are applicable, in their full extent, to the beds which occur in this State, may be questionable. The marl beds * Eaton's Survey of Rensselaer County, p. 26. This survey, together with the survey of the district adjoining the Erie canal, was executed at the expense of Gen. Stephen Van Rens selaer. Report, American Journal of Science and Arts, No. 1, vol 27. of the eastern shore of Maryland contain marine shells only. Those which have been discovered in this State, contain only land and fresh water shells. Whether with us marl may in general be as advantageously applied as a manure, may also admit of some question. In our soils throughout the greater part of the State, calcareous ingredients may be expected to predominate. To soils of this description, marl (itself a calcareous ingredient,) cannot always be beneficially applied. But it may, as in Albany and Rensselaer counties, often occur in localities, where the nature of the soil is such as to need its presence, Specimens of the soils are, under the resolution of the Assembly, to be preserved. They will be kept in phials, which may be of moderate size, and will not require a case exceeding fifteen feet in height, twenty in width and one foot in depth, MINERALS. The Salt Springs of Onondaga county have for many years constituted one of the most fruitful of our internal resources. They are, indeed, of greater value than any other. They provide our citizens with one of the first necessaries of life, at a very moderate expense, and they are a perpetual source of revenue to the State, The springs, from which the salt is manufactured, penetrate the whole district of country around the Onondaga lake. Those at Salina are the most strongly impregnated with saline ingredients. The grounds on which the manufactories are erected, belong to the State, and are leased for a term of years to individuals, on the sole condition, that they shall be devoted to the manufacture of salt. For the purpose of raising the brine to the surface of the ground and conducting it to the various manufactories, three pumps, with the necessary machinery, have been erected, at an expense to the State of about forty thousand dollars. One at Geddes, sup plies that village, and the other two at Salina supply the three villages of Salina, Syracuse and Liverpool. The brine is conveyed in logs to Liverpool, a distance of three miles, and a mile and a half to Syracuse. In the year 1831, there were 153 manufactories of fine salt and six of coarse salt. The latter occupy about 200 acres of ground, [Assem. No, 9.] 3 and are almost wholly dependent on solar evaporation. The fine salt is produced by boiling. In 1831 there were manufactured 1,441,559 bushels of salt. Of this quantity, 189,000 bushels were of coarse salt, of which 161,753 bushels were produced by solar evaporation, and the remainder by artificial and solar heat combined. The manufacturers of salt pay to the State a duty of six cents on every bushel manufactured, and two mills per bushel for the brine supplied by the State pumps. Yet the price of salt at the works during the year 1835, did not exceed fifteen cents per bushel, including those charges. The quantity of salt manufactured, and the amount of revenue derived from it by the State, from 1831 to 1835 inclusive, after deducting the expense of superintending the works, will be seen by the following table. Previous to the year 1834, the duty or excise on cach bushel of salt manufactured, was twelve and a half cents. It was reduced, in consequence of the reduction of the impost on foreign salt by Congress, for the purpose of enabling the domestic manufacture to compete with the other in our own markets. This change in the rate of duty will account for the diminished revenue in 1834, on the increased production of that year, as compared with the preceding year. The law providing for the reduction of the duty went into operation in April, 1834. The fiscal year, 1834, commenced on the 1st October, 1833, and ended on the 30th September, 1834. Part of the salt manufactured in that year, therefore, paid a duty of twelve and a half cents, and part of it a duty of six cents. By the amended constitution of this State, as adopted in 1822, the salt duties were pledged to the payment of the debt contracted for the construction of the Erie and Champlain canals. The revenues of those canals from tolls on property transported on them having become so great as to render any auxiliary resource unnecessary, and an amount of surplus revenue almost equal to the outstanding debt having already been accumulated, an amendment to the constitution has been submitted to the people, and ratified by them, providing for a restoration of the salt duties (together with the duties on goods sold at auction, which were similarly pledged,) to the General Fund. The salt duties will soon be applicable to the payment of the ordinary expenses of the government. Indeed, they constitute, together with the auction duties, the only revenues of the State, which can be so applied. These facts have been briefly presented with a view to exhibit the value of the salt springs as a source of revenue to the State, and the importance of giving the greatest practicable extent to their productiveness. To our own citizens it is an object of the greatest interest. To an extensive region beyond our own limits, but within the circle supplied with this necessary of life from our manufactories, it is scarcely less an object of interest. This circle has been regularly extending with the progress of settlement westward. The reduction of the duty on the manufacture has given an additional impulse to production. The effect of such a reduction is to enlarge the boundaries of the circle in ordinary cases, as far as the manufacture can be transported for a sum equal to the amount so reduced. But where the circle is bounded by rival articles, the enlargement will be only half as great as in the cases last mentioned, if the facilities of transportation are equal in both directions. In 1831, about 50,000 bushels of salt were sent into Upper Canada for consumption. The amount is now doubtless increased. In 1833, about 4,000 bushels were sent to Chicago, near the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; in 1834, about 16,000 bushels; and during the last year, in consequence of the extraordinary influx of population, the amount must have been much greater. A very extensive region of country is, therefore, interested in this manufacture-interested in procuring it at the lowest. price. Facilities of transportation give it an advantage in many portions of the northwestern States, over the salt manufactured in those States. In Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio, salt springs have been worked, but at an expense far exceeding that of manufacturing salt at the Onondaga springs. On the Kenhaway river in Virginia, and in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, the cost of manufacture is much less than in the States referred to; but the products of the works at these two points cannot come in competition with the Onondaga salt within the cir cle now supplied by the latter. If, however, from any change of circumstances the cost of production shall be enhanced, the rival productions of other works will press upon the boundaries of this circle and narrow it. Such an enhancement can only be expected to arise from the increasing cost of fuel, and this may possibly be counterbalanced by introducing greater economy into the process of manufacture. About 100,000 cords of wood are annually consumed at the Onondaga works, at an expense of about $1.50 per cord, equal to an annual expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this object. As population increases, fuel must become dearer, and the cost of manufacture will be augmented. The discovery of coal in the vicinity of the springs, or of beds of rock salt beneath them, would counterbalance the inevitable increase of the cost of production, from the cause referred to. A critical examination of the strata through which the water percolates, the rock on which it appears to rest, and the geology of the surrounding localities, might lead to conclusions on both these points, which would at least put an end to conjecture. The existence of beds of rock salt in the vicinity of the springs has been the subject of great diversity of opinion. Mr. Eaton supposes the brine to be produced by combinations perpetually in progress between the elementary materials furnished by the subjacent rock, and some of the superincumbent strata. In another place the same opinion is expressed, and maintained by refe rence to a case in which crystals of muriate of soda had appeared on a piece of the rock taken from the floor of a salt spring, and exposed in a humid atmosphere. Dr. Lewis C. Beck, who examined the springs and analyzed the various kinds of salt manufactured at the works, dissents from this opinion. Others have also called it in question.§ Indeed the common opinion seems to be, that beds of rock salt exist in the vicinity, and that the brine is formed by the passage of water over their surface. This opinion derives strength from the fact, that the geological character of the strata, through which the brine is drawn to the surface, bears a strong resemblance to that of the strata overlaying the beds of rock salt near Northwich in Cheshire, England, as well as to that of the strata in the immediate vicinity of the salt mines of Cardona in Spain. Borings have been made at the springs in On*Survey of the Canal District, p. 108. + Silliman's Journal, vol. 6, page 242. Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 5, page 182. Transactions of the Geological Society, vol. 1, page 62. Ib. page 404. |