These celebrated salines are the property of the State. The tract in which they are found, called the "Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation," is in the town of Salina, and embraces within its limits the Onondaga Lake, and the villages of Geddes, Syracuse, Lodi, Salina and Liverpool. Many years ago, the greater part of the reservation was laid out in village plats, and farm and pasture lots, and sold to private citizens, so that the grounds now belonging to the State constitute but a small portion of the original tract. The manufacture of salt is carried on at all the above named villages except Lodi. By means of shafts of small bore, varying from about 90 to more than 300 feet in depth, tubed and fitted with pumps, the brine is raised and poured into reservoirs, from which it is distributed in pipes to the different works for making salt. Of this brine, about 45 gallons furnish a bushel of salt; and the revenue of the State is derived from a duty of 6 cents on each bushel. This duty was originally fixed by the constitution at a shilling; but was reduced to 6 cents by an amendment of that instrument, adopted in November, 1833.

Two modes of making salt are in use at these springs, one by arti. ficial heat, and the other by evaporation in the sun. The former process is much the less accurate of the two, and the salt produced by it is

of an inferior quality; while the solar salt is purer than any other, and enjoys a high reputation. By those who are thoroughly acquainted with this subject, the duty paid to the State is said to constitute but very little less than half of the whole cost of production.

The interests of the State on the reservation are put in charge of two principal officers, designated respectively the Superintendent of Salt Springs, and Inspector of Salt, in the county of Onondaga. The duties of the latter relate chiefly to the quality of salt, its measurement, packing, and the character of the barrels in which it is sent to market. The Superintendent has the general oversight of the reservation, the sinking of shafts, the regulation of the pumps, the supply and distribution of the brine to the different works, the care of the State lands to prevent intru. sion and trespasses, and the leasing of lots for the erection of works for making fine salt. The granting of the lands set apart for the manufac ture of the coarse or solar salt, is vested in the Commissioners of the Land Office.

Of the total quantity of salt annually produced at these springs, about nine-tenths are of the kind made by boiling, which usually goes by the name of "fine salt," on account of the minuteness of its crystals; and the other one-tenth, which forms in very much larger crystals, is commonly designated coarse salt."

The Superintendent and Inspector make annual reports to the Legisla. ture. From the last of these documents, dated at Syracuse, Jannary 9, 1845, the following facts are derived:

For the year 1844, the quantities of the several kinds of salt, as classi. fied at the springs, are stated in the Superintendent's annual report, as follows:

The gross amount of duty at 6 cents a bushel, on this salt, for 1844, was $240,213.24. This sum was increased by certain small items of rent, &c. to $240,305.10. From this deduct $92,533.38, allowed for drawback, or bounty, and $33,286.58 for salaries, engineering, repair of machinery, &c. and the amount of nett revenue left from this source for 1844, is $114,485. 14. This shows an increase over 1843, of $2,410.65, and over 1842, of $32,675.61.

The recent very rapid and great increase in the production of this salt, is owing to the policy introduced in 1841, of allowing a drawback of the State duty and a large portion of the canal tolls, on all salt delivered at certain points which it had not been previously enabled to reach, in any important quantities, as a branch of regular trade. This policy was entered upon, in the first instance, in the form of drawback, under a regu lation made by the Board of Commissioners of the Canal Fund in the summer of 1841, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed for the pur pose at the preceding session. During the session of 1843, the Legisla. ture passed another act, changing the form of the measure from a draw. back to a bounty, and naming the points at which salt, being delivered, should be entitled to such bounty. Those points are tide-water on the Hudson, or the junction of the Erie and Champlain canals, Oswego, Buf. falo, Lafayette, Elmira, Owego, Newark, Dansville, Binghamton, Bea. ver, Portsmouth.

The object of this policy was to create new and more extended markets for our salt, by enabling it to reach districts to which it could not be carried, if required to pay full duty and tolls. The operation of this policy is well exemplified by the following brief statement of the number of bushels which reached tide-water in the several years mentioned.

90,985 1844,.....

Bushels.

156,500

536,954

878,796

The following statement shows the whole quantity of salt delivered at the several points named in the act of 1843, with the whole bounty thereon, for the year 1844.

Where delivered.

Bushels. Whole bounty.

Tide-water, or junc. of E. and Cham. canals, 878,769 $66,784 77

In view of the growing trade in salt, under the operation of the policy in question, the Superintendent remarks that, should the manufacturers be able to deliver their salt at tide-water, (the point of principal increase,) at the same prices at which they have furnished it for the last year, he has no doubt that the eastern demand alone would so increase as to amount in the course of two or three years, to two or two and a half millions of bushels.

Still further to illustrate the operation of the policy under consideration, it is shown, in the same annual report, that with full duties and tolls, the entire revenue on all the salt which reached tide-water, in 1840, was only $1,115.33; with no duties, but with full tolls, in 1842, it was $4,475.55; while, with no duties, and only one-third tolls, the revenue ad. vanced, in 1844, to $9,685.36.

This extension of the salt trade, moreover, has not only augmented the revenue, but has also led to a very material improvement in the quality of that description of salt which constitutes the great bulk of the manu facture, namely, the fine salt. The opening of the market east of the Hudson, by bringing the Onondaga salt into direct competition with the best imported varieties, has presented an efficient motive to the manufac turer to improve his processes; and the result already is a very much better article.

The Onondaga coarse salt, made by solar evaporation, has long been known, from chemical analysis, as the purest salt in use.

On comparing the whole quantity of salt receiving bounty, in 1844, with the whole quantity produced at the Onondaga springs during the year, it will be seen that more than half of the entire product reached a market through the operation of the bounty, the other portion having paid full duty and toll, as if no bounty had ever been authorized.

The foregoing statements refer solely to the salt made at the Onondaga springs. But the manufacture of salt, after a suspension of many years, was resumed at Montezuma two or three years ago; and the quantity there produced, in 1844, was 23,275 bushels, yielding a revenue from the

duty, of $1,397.56; making the aggregate produce at both the State salines, 4,026,828 bushels, and the aggregate nett ́revenue $115,882.70, for 1844.

The duty levied on salt, as imposed by the State Constitution, up to 1834, was 12 cents per bushel; but in that year an amendment of the Constitution took effect, reducing the duty to 6 cents per bushel. During the eight years ending with 1833, the last year of the shilling duty, the annual product of salt at Onondaga rose from 827,508 bushels in 1826, to 1,291,280 bushels in 1829, to 1,435,446 bushels in 1830, and to 1,838,646 Dushels in 1833; the average increase for each of the eight years having been not far from 100,000 bushels. Under the 6 cents duty, the annual product has increased at a much greater rate, though exhibiting at the same time much less uniformity. The fluctuation in this respect has, indeed, been not a little remarkable, as the following statement of the yearly product for the eight years ending with 1841, will show.

The following statistics are taken from the annual report of the Secretary of State, dated March 14, 1845.

Reports for 1844 were made, in obedience to law, from all the counties of the State except Albany.

The whole number of paupers relieved or supported during the year 1844, exclusive of the city and county of Albany, was 97,961. Of the whole number thus relieved or supported, the whole number of county paupers was 90,744, and the number of town paupers was 7,217. The number of persons temporarily relieved was 77,786, and included in the whole number relieved or supported first above given. The whole number relieved or supported during the year 1843, including the city and county of Albany, was 82,754. Excess in 1844, exclusive of Albany, 15,

207.

The aggregate expense of relieving and supporting the above number of paupers, exclusive of the city and county of Albany, was $569,017.891. The total expense in 1843, including Albany, was $592,353.294.

The aggregate sum above mentioned, is composed of the following items of expenditure, viz:

1st. POOR-HOUSE EXPENSES.

Paid to superintendents, in the several counties,..

to keepers and poor-house officers...

to constables and other officers,..

for supplies of the county poor-houses,

for transportation of paupers,.

to physicians,.........................

for miscellaneous expenditures,.

Total amount of expenses connected with county poor-houses, $349,339 88

2d. EXPENSES OF ADMINISTERING TEMPORARY RELIEF. Paid to overseers of the poor in the several counties,..... to Justices of the Peace,

for relieving indigent persons temporarily,

Total expenses for temporary relief,
Add Poor-House expenses,.

Total expenses in 1844,..

$17,250 97

7,891 81

194,535 23

$219,678 01

349,339 881

$569,017 89

Number received into the several poor-houses in 1844, was 15,416; born therein, 419; died therein, 1,286; bound out, 524; discharged therefrom, 10,332; absconded, 1,290. Number in the several poor-houses, December 1, 1844, 7,549; of whom 2,775 were foreigners, 767 lunatics, 274 idiots, and 60 mutes.

Number on the 1st December, 1844, under 16 years, 1,985, or 1,032 males and 953 females; instructed during 1844, 2,581, for an average period of 84 months.

Whole number relieved or supported in city of New-York, in 1844, was 58,171; which was 20,347 more than in 1843.

The number of paupers, natives of the country, was 14,435; born in Ireland, 7,279; in England, 1,573; in Scotland, 193; in Germany, 751; in France, 275; and paupers coming in from Canada, 350; and a very few from other countries.

The number made paupers by intemperance, was 6,285; by sickness, 4,406; by destitution, misfortune, &c., 6,716; debauchery, 707; lunacy, 863; idiocy, 405; blindness, 254; lameness, 1,202; old age and decrepi. tude, 1,013, &c.