SENATE.] Duty on Alum Salt. [FEBRUARY, 1831. Have you any knowledge of its being used in food | of common salt, the same quantity of forage might, for animals? Yes, to horses in particular. Has it a good effect? Yes. Then do you not suppose, if the restrictions were taken off, it would come into more general use among the farmers, for stock of all kinds? It would in that instance; we used to have five horses in our rock salt mine, and those horses always appeared in good condition, though very much worked. Were they liable to less disorders than those out of the mine? Yes; much less. Do you happen to know whether they were in the practice at that time of receiving salt with their food? Yes; to my knowledge they were. About a handful to a quartern of oats. EXTRACT. * * * * * on many occasions, be made to go twice as far as it could have done, in feeding animals, had the salt been withheld from them! EXTRACT. 10. Mr. Charles G. Cothill, examined.-What is your profession? Answer. A bacon and provision merchant, residing in Judd street, Brunswick square. What is the nature and amount of your business, and how far has it been affected by the salt duties? Answer. About fifty years ago my father estab lished a manufactory in Vine street, and expended £10,000 in adapting the premises for the curing of bacon and the salting of pork. Our annual returns were about £50,000: it is now diminished to less than £1,000 annually, in consequence, as I apprehend, of the very high duties on salt, as our trade has diminished progressively as those duties have increased. Do you not consider that the breed of hogs has also diminished, in consequence of this increase of duty on salt? Answer. Very materially; and, as a further proof of what I state, we had a very extensive trade of £200,000 a year in hogs; now not £10,000. Answer. In a manufactory of bacon, about 12 pounds; to cure a small quantity, about 17 or 18. EXTRACT. 9. Evidence of Mr. W. Horne.-There are very few farmers who are not aware of the importance of salt in preserving hay, and restoring it when damaged; many of those whom I have conversed with on the subject, have used it for these purposes, What effect, in your opinion, would a great and it would generally be resorted to, to the extent reduction of the salt duties produce in your business? of ten or fifteen pounds to the ton of hay, if the Answer. I conceive it would restore our trade: duties on salt were repealed. Lord Somerville has we should then be able to supply the West India furnished most satisfactory information on this sub-markets, and other colonies, with salted pork, ject; and I know, from respectable authority, that cheaper and better than any other country. it is a common practice in the United States of What is the quantity of salt used upon 100 weight America to sprinkle salt upon hay when forming it of pork, to make bacon? into ricks. We also learn from Lord Somerville, that Mr. Darke, of Breedon, one of the most celebrated graziers in the kingdom, mixed salt with his flooded mouldy hay, and that his Hereford oxen did better on it than others on the best hay he had; and he was convinced the hay had all its good effects from the salt. * I have learnt from Mr. Sutton, of Eaton, in Cheshire, that he would give thirty tons (120 bushels, of 56 pounds each) of salt a year to his cattle, being fifty cows, if the duty were repealed. In many parts of the United States of America, salt is generally given to cattle. The excellent condition of the horses in the rockpits of Cheshire, may be adduced in favor of its benefit in fattening cattle and keeping them in health. Many counted that they can attribute the longevity of their horses to the good effects of salt. Mr. Hadfield, of Liverpool, furnishes an instance in his horse, thirty years old; he constantly gave it rock salt to lick, placing it in his manger. Mr. Young has furnished us, in the annals of agriculture, with a most interesting and satisfactory statement (obtained from the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris) on the effect of salt in fattening cattle. From this report it appears, that to the unlimited use of salt was to be ascribed the circumstance of four times the number of sheep having been reared on a sterile common, than would otherwise have subsisted on it; and that the wool of these flocks is not only the finest in the whole country, but bears the highest price of any in France. The fineness of the wool of the Spanish sheep is also attributed, in a great measure, to the free use of salt. It is not, therefore, I presume, an extraordinary position to say, that, by a proper use 11. Testimony of Sir Thomas Bernard.—I ventured to suggest that a tax on salt was fundamentally wrong in principle, because it presses most on the class least able to bear the weight-because of its immoral tendency-and because it deprives the nation of benefits, beyound measure greater than the whole produce of the impost. The salt duties are about a million and a half sterling per annum, (about seven millions of dollars.) The poor use most salt in proportion to their wealth; a cottager in the country ten to one in proportion to a nobleman in town. But the benefits of which the nation is deprived by the salt duties, are not easily appreciated, or even numbered. In agriculture and rural economy alone, the loss in feeding cattle, sheep, and hogs-in restoring damaged provender -in manure, and in the effect on wages, may, without extravagance, be supposed to exceed the whole value of the tax. Equal, perhaps, would be the gain to our manufacturers of woollen, linen, glass, earthenware, soap, &c., &c., &c., by the unrestrained use of muriate and carbonate of soda and muriatic acid, of which our salt mines and ocean afford supplies absolutely inexhaustible. Mr. B. having read, or stated, these extracts, to show the use of salt in agriculture, said there were many other witnesses examined, to prove that alum salt, which the English usually called bay salt, because it was made by solar evaporation, out of sea water in the bay of Biscay, and other bays, was indispensable to the curing FEBRUARY, 1831.] Duty on Alum Salt. [SENATE. Crystallized soda (made of salt) is much used in washing. Four hundred tons are annually made at the Long Benton works only. You have stated that, during the last six or seven years, it has increased from one to four hundred tons? Yes. This at the Long Benton works only? Which is made from salt duty free? of provisions for long keeping, or for exporta- | has occasion to lay by, or to send to the tanner at tion, other articles connected with agriculture, a distance. as cheese, butter, bacon, pickled beef, and pickled pork; and that the English Government permitted alum salt, under the name of bay salt, to be imported both into England and Ireland duty free, for these purposes, even when the domestic manufacture of common salt in England far exceeded the home demand, and furnished millions of bushels for exportation. He also stated that the committee of the House of Commons had examined the first physicians of Great Britain, to prove the effect of a deficiency of salt in the provisions of the poor on their health, and that these physicians uniformly tes-tracts, and expressed his regret that, out of tified that many diseases of the poor, and especially in children, were the effect of using vegetables not sufficiently salted, and fish and meat not sufficiently cured. He also stated that the committee had extended their examination to the use of salt in various manufactories, and had established, by proof, that a variety of useful manufactures required the abolition of the salt duty. On this point he read extracts from the examination of Samuel Parkes, Esq., an eminent chemist of London, as follows: EXTRACT. 12. Examination of Samuel Parkes.-What is your profession? I am proprietor of the chemical works in Goswell street, London, and of other chemical works in Maiden lane, Islington. Can you acquaint the committee what are the manufactures most affected by the salt laws? * The manufactures of mineral alkali, crystallized soda, muriatic acid, hard soap, distinguished from soft soap, Glauber salt, Epsom salt, magnesia, and sal ammoniac, are all materially affected by the duty on salt; but as common salt, or one or other of the component parts of common salt, is made use of in the composition of a great variety of articles that are employed in our manufactures, it is difficult to answer that question with precision. Respecting soap, I have only to observe, that common salt is absolutely necessary for the manufacture of hard soap; for however plentifully potash may be produced, large quantities of common salt must be employed with it, or the soap will be only temporarily hard; it will have no lasting consistence. Salt is employed largely in the preparation and manufacture of a great number of other articles that might be enumerated; and in a short time I have no doubt they would all be benefited by the reduction of the duty on salt. How does the price of salt affect the soap boilers? As it affects all other trades in which salt is employed. State the way in which it affects them. The cheaper it is, the cheaper they will have it if they buy it. Do you know any other (manufacturing) purposes for salt? Yes it is used in very large quantities by dyers, when it can be had cheap; and in a great variety of other ways. With respect to the salting of hides, I learn from further inquiry, that the butcher usually applies five pounds of salt to every ox or cow hide which he When Mr. B. had finished reading these ex seventy witnesses, and four hundred folio pages Queries on the state of the salt trade in the Western 1. Whether the trade in salt is monopolized? and, if so, at what works? and over how many States do the sales of these monopolists extend? 2. The practices of the monopolists, if any, to enhance the price of salt, and to prevent competition? 3. The prices of domestic and foreign salt in your neighborhood, and the freight of foreign salt from New Orleans? 4. Whether the monopolists have established depots of salt in different States, and appointed agents to sell their salt, and restricted the sales of each depot to its district? How far are the depots apart in your State? 5. Whether the salt manufacturers have entered into agreements with the monopolizers to restrict the quantity of salt made at the works? to confine the sales to the monopolists? and to stop working wells and furnaces for pay? The meaning of the phrase "dead wells," and the rent of such wells? 6. Whether salt is sold in your neighborhood by weight or measure? If by weight, how many pounds are allowed to the bushel? and how much a weighed bushel measures? 7. In selling by the barrel, is due allowance made for the weight of the barrel, and for the loss of salt in drying? If not, what is the difference between the real and nominal quantity in the barrel? 8. Whether the monopolists sell for money, or SENATE.] Duty on Alum Salt. [FEBRUARY, 1831. country produce? for ready pay, or upon credit? | States-this boasted land of liberty and equal laws, and whether the price is higher or lower since the monopoly? 9. Do the monopolists rise and fall in their prices according to the presence or absence of competition? and what salt competes with them? 10. Do they realize great gains? 11. Whether the domestic salt is fit for pickling beef and pork, for curing bacon, and preserving butter for exportation, or consumption in the South, or long keeping? 12. Whether beef and pork, put in common salt, will be received for the use of the army or navy? 13. The necessity and expense of repacking beef and pork in alum salt, in New Orleans, which has been put up in domestic salt? 14. The necessity and advantage of giving salt to horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs? Whether salt is not indispensable to stock in the Western States? Whether there is not a great difference between inland and maritime States in this respect? The reason of that difference? How much salt per head, and how often per week or month ought it to be given to each kind of stock? and whether the farmers in your section of the country are prevented, by the high price and scarcity of salt, from giving as much to their stock as they need? 15. The use and advantage of salt in preserving hay, fodder, and clover? In restoring them, after being damaged by wet? St Louis, July, 1830. Communication from G. T. C. MCCLANNAHAN, Esq., of Jackson county, North Alabama, October, 1830. Your first query: The trade of salt is entirely monopolized here by James White, of the Holston salt works, in Virginia. I cannot exactly tell to what States these works furnish salt, but it is to be supposed to the western parts of Virginia, eastern part of Tennessee, a part of North Carolina, the northern part of Georgia, North Alabama, and some in South Alabama, &c., &c. countenances such oppressive acts. Why does Mr. White not sell as low here on the river as at Winchester, after carrying his salt one hundred and twenty miles, fifty-five by land, and that, too, the very same salt? The answer is obvious. At Winchester there is some competition; it is not so far from Nashville, where foreign salt may be obtained. And this is why he sells it lower there than at this place. We are here fenced in with almost impassable mountains, at a great distance from any commercial depot, and without the means of shunning the exorbitant exactions of these vampires, who take the bread from the mouths of our children with the calculating coldness of an Arab; and these acts are legalized by a Congress of freemen. We are glad to hear the stern voice of indignation at this oppression, uttered by some of the patriotic republicans of that body; and we should glory in being among the most persecuted victims, if by that means this most pernicious system of monopoly could be overturned. Query 3d.-We have no foreign salt here for sale; two years ago some gentlemen brought a few bushels from Nashville, and sold it for one dollar and eighty-seven and a half cents per fifty pounds, underselling the salt gentlemen here at that time. The domestic salt has got lower than it was four years ago. Then it was two dollars and fifty cents, now one dollar and eighty-seven cents to two dollars. The freight from New Orleans to Nashville is one cent per pound, as I am informed by a merchant of this place, and from Nashville to this place one and a quarter cents per pound. 4th. There is a depot here, and another at Ditto's Landing, as I am told, for selling salt. These places are about fifty-five miles apart by land. The remaining part of the question I do not know any thing about. 5th. Colonel White, as I have been informed by good authority, leased the Preston salt works, in what is called New Virginia, for nine or twelve thousand dollars annually; but I am further informed that the lease is out, and the works are to go into active operation to compete with White, he having let them lie idle heretofore; these are "dead wells," but the number of dead wells he has I am unable to inform you. 4632 Query 2d.-Colonel J. White has a depot at this place, a mile and a half from Tennessee River, down which stream he boats his salt. And if any person else brings salt here to sell, they immediately undersell that person and ruin him. The people sometimes get their salt from Nashville, when they have a convenience of doing so, and it comes much cheaper, after paying land carriage one hundred and thir- 6th. Salt is sold here by weight, fifty pounds to ty miles, than White's salt; but no person dares to the bushel; and fifty pounds (the bushel) of the compete with him here; because he can, at his will, salt which I tried, (without pressing,) measured undersell any person who pays a land carriage of 1,188-595215 solid inches, making 4 gallons 1000 one hundred and thirty miles; and therefore in- quarts, dry measure, which is but very little over stantly break them up. One thing is yet to be told, half a measured bushel. Therefore, when salt is which will convince any man of the sin and oppres- two dollars the fifty pounds, we have to pay at the sion of this monopolizing system. This same James rate of three dollars and sixty-six and a half cents White will carry his salt by us down to Ditto's Land- the measured bushel. This is oppression in a free ing, ten miles below Huntsville, haul it out to Win-country-this is the fruit of the tariff. chester, Tennessee, which is fifty-five miles of land carriage, and sell it there so much lower than he will here on the river take it out of his boats, that some of the planters, who are able to take their wagons and cross a very bad mountain, (part of the Cumberland,) haul their salt over from Winchester, which is forty-five miles from this place. Is this not oppressive to the poor? Would not this gorernmental monopolist wring from the distressed orphan, widow, and war-worn soldier, all their earthly sustenance? And yet the Congress of the United 7th. In selling by the barrel, the weight of the barrel, and the net weight of salt, is sometimes, and most commonly, placed on the barrel; but the weight of the barrel is marked much less than its real weight. They make no deduction for the drying of the salt. One barrel I particularly weighed out, and it lost twenty pounds; and I am credibly informed that some have lost as much as fifty. 8th. The monopolists here sell for money, or cotton at the cash price, which is the same thing as FEBRUARY, 1831.] Duty on Alum Salt. [SENATE. money. They do not credit their salt. There are 10th. We believe that White realizes great gains. always two prices for cotton here-a cash and dis- We are sustained in this opinion, from his carrying count price. Merchants, in taking in cotton for it by land twenty-five or thirty miles farther, where their accounts, give more for it than they will in he meets with competition, and selling it for less money; and this is called the discount price. The than he does here. salt gentlemen sell their salt for cotton, at the cash price. The remaining part of the query I know nothing about. 9th. The monopolists have fallen here, since they find that people would go to Nashville for their salt, if they did not. But they know at what price to keep it up; they know the planters cannot take the trouble to go one hundred and thirty miles to Nashville, to get a little salt; and they know that no person dares to compete with them; as they could instantly reduce the price of their salt, and thereby ruin their competitor. 10th. They certainly must realize great gains, or they would not give nine or twelve thousand dollars annually for one manufactory, to let it lie idle. Why does not Congress lease all the salt works in the United States, and let them lie idle, and then knock the duty off of salt, if they wish to encourage the manufacture of salt, by filling the pockets of the manufacturers? It would be much better for the people. They would be great gainers by purchasing the salt works, and demolishing them, or letting them out at a small rate, and then striking the duty from salt. The remaining queries, I am in hopes, will find abler persons to answer them than I. 2d. We can give no definite answer. 3d. The price of domestic salt is one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel, by the barrel, or one dollar and seventy-five cents by the single bushel. Foreign salt sells at about the same. The freight of salt, from New Orleans to Huntsville, is about one cent and three-fourths per pound. 4th. Colonel White has salt deposited in different parts of this State, and others, at various distances from each other, say ten to fifteen miles. 5th. Preston's works were for some time discontinued for-say ten thousand dollars per annum. 6th. Universally sold by weight, allowing fifty pounds to the bushel; the measured bushel will weigh from seventy to eighty pounds. 7th. When the salt is weighed out of the barrel, it seldom holds out, and frequently loses from five to twenty pounds. We may add, that, however honestly it may have been put up at the works, it is generally brought down in open boats, subject to the winter rains, which damage it more or less; and we know of but one of his agents who sells it any other way than by the marked weight. 11th. Wholly unfit. 12th. It will not be received for either 13th. We can give no correct answer. 14th. It is indispensable for stock of all kinds. It is thought they require more in the Western States than maritime States, owing, probably, to the absence of the sea breeze, and vapor impregnated with salt coming from the sea, and alighting on the vegetable matter. Stock of all kinds should be salted twice a week; but, owing to the high price of salt, the stock are probably not salted more than once in two weeks, on an average. From the best accounts, three thousand barrels of salt are consumed annually in Madison county, averaging about six bushels (of fifty pounds) to the barrel. The population being about twenty-seven thousand, gives us an average of thirty-three pounds and one-third to each person. Were those heavy duties taken off, the consumption would be much greater. 15th. Salt is thought to be useful in preserving hay, fodder, and clover; each will keep well if sprinkled over with it, though not thoroughly cured when put up. Moreover, our pork is often spoiled from the want of a sufficiency of salt to pack it up in, which we cannot obtain on account of the high price. Thousands, and tens of thousands of pounds are often lost from that circumstance alone. Alum salt would be an immense saving to North Alabama, in that one particular. Resolved, therefore, unanimously, That the delegation from this State, as well as those of our sister States, have our unfeigned thanks for their exertions and co-operation in the last session of Congress, with Mr. Benton, in endeavoring to repeal the duty on salt; and that we request our delegation to use their utmost to effect the repeal of a tax so burdensome to us, and of no ultimate advantage to any State. To the fourteenth I will observe, that salt is indispensably necessary to the good condition of horses, horned cattle, sheep, and hogs, in the Western States. It is beneficial in the maritime States likewise, and the more so as you recede from the seaboard. The watery constituent parts of the atmosphere on the seaboard take with them salt, which is inhaled by these animals, and thereby they are supplied with that salt which is necessary for the healthful condition of all animals, both granivorous and herbulent, and to some of those that are carnivorous. The quantity of salt, per head, to each kind of stock, 8th. Salt is sold for nothing else but ready money. will depend on the food with which they are sup9th. Salt is sold, high or low, according to com- plied. If with grain, less; if with herbs, more salt. petition. The Kenhawa ground alum and Liver-I am sure, if the price of salt be reduced, the farmpool are brought in but sparingly, which is the only competition. ers in this section of the country would give their stock a better supply, and that their improvement SENATE.] Duty on Alum Salt. [FEBRUARY, 1831. would be in proportion to the increased quantity | quantum of salt, owing to the high price of the argiven. To err, by an excess, is not to be appre- ticle. hended. 15th. The use and advantage of salt in preserv To the fifteenth query I will remark, that the useing of hay, fodder, and clover, is admitted by all of salt, in the preservation of hay, is well expended. practical farmers, although but few avail themselves And if new mowed hay, or clover, or other grasses, of the advantage, in consequence of the scarcity and be packed, a layer of hay, and a layer of straw, high price of salt. either wheat, oats, or rye, and a good supply of salt to each layer be added, you make the best of food for horses and cattle. I approve, very highly, your intention to repeal, if you can, the salt tax, totally and promptly. In this, and all efforts of your useful life, I wish you success. Communication from Lieutenant Governor Breathitt, of Kentucky, dated Russellville, Nov. 16, 1830. My information will not enable me to answer your favor on the state of the salt trade in detail. From the general opinion on the subject, there is no doubt there was, during the last year, an ex Communication from General William Hall, of Sum-tensive salt monopoly supplied from the Kenhawa ner county, Tennessee, dated December 8, 1830. I received your "queries on the state of the salt trade in the Western States," in due time; and have delayed answering them, only that I might obtain all the information within my reach necessary to a correct reply. The queries will be answered in the order in which they are proposed, Nos. 1, 2, &c., answering to the corresponding numbers in the que ries. 5th. I have not been able to obtain any satisfactory information as to this query. 6th. Salt is sold in this State, and throughout the western country, by weight. The measured bushel weighs from twenty to twenty-five pounds more than the weighed bushel. 7th. An allowance is made for the weight of the barrel, though none for the loss of salt in drying. 8th. Is answered, in part, previously. The price is higher since the monopoly. 9th. The price of salt is regulated by the quantity in market. The quantity of foreign, or other domestic salt, brought to this market, is inconsiderable. 10th. The monopolists realize great gains. 11th. Although Kenhawa salt is very superior to any other domestic salt brought to this market, I am informed that nearly all the beef and pork from the western country is repacked in foreign salt, either for shipment, or for the army or navy. 12th. See No. 11. 13th. I am not informed as to the price of repacking beef or pork which has been put up in domestic salt. 14th. The necessity and advantage of giving salt to stock of every kind is universally admitted. It is indispensable in the Western States, and ought to be given to all kinds of stock about once a week, and to each head of horses or cattle from two to four ounces at a time, and less than half that quantity to sheep or hogs, though farmers in this section are prevented from giving their stock the necessary works. Depots were had principally on the watercourses for salt, where it was vended by their agents, sometimes on a credit of four or six months. Whether it continues the present season, I am not advised. Those depots extended to Tennessee. Sales were made for money. There is but little foreign salt brought into this neighborhood: I cannot, therefore, state the difference in price. This neighborhood is supplied from the Illinois saline, and the Kenhawa salt from the latter is preferred to preserve meat. It is not so white and clean as that from the saline. It is usually sold by weight-50 lbs. to the bushel, when sold by the barrel. The tare of the barrel is taken off, and the salt is generally weighed at the time of sale. It is, however, sometimes otherwise. About this time last year, the common price, at this place, was one dollar per bushel; now, it may be purchased at seventy-five cents. There is no doubt that salt is indispensable for the use of stock, and particularly in this country. Much stock has been raised upon the grazing the forest affords, and if they are furnished plentifully with salt, they are fat. Hence the necessity of its being as cheap as possible, and because, also, of its universal use by all. I was pleased at the reduction of the duties last session on coffee, tea, molasses, and salt. I should be pleased, however, to see the duties retained on manufactured articles, so that our own manufactories may enter into competition with foreign ones, and make a reasonable profit. I would not have them to have unreasonable profit: then it would be a tax upon one portion for the benefit of the other. The point to stop at is one of difficulty, and requires great experience and much research. I should be pleased to hear from you occasionally. Statement of the Hon. Mr. Lyon of Kentucky. That, being a member of a mercantile house which received a quantity of salt from the Kenhawa Salt Company, to sell on commission, in the years 1826 -'7, with instructions to sell at the original mark or lick weight, finding many of the barrels greatly deficient in weight, varying from 10 to 20 per cent., they reweighed, and sold a quantity at the real weight; that, when the agent of the company came on, he was dissatisfied, and said it was their custom to sell elsewhere at the original mark, and that it must be so sold there, which they refused to do. The agency, and the salt on hand, were transferred to other hands; and that he has great reason to believe the necessities of the people, in many instances, compelled them to purchase the deficient barrels at their marked weight. |