John W. Barker, sworn and examined, says:

I am secretary of the Salt Company of Onondaga; it was formed in 1860, under the general law; its capital is $320,000; whole amount of stock issued and cash paid in; the company lease all the manufacturing works, solar and fine, with a few exceptions; 316 fine works in all; they pay an interest of twelve and a half per cent upon a valuation made by appraisers at the time of the leasing; the appraisers selected by the owners and the company; the total rent is about $500 per block per annum; the rent is twelve and a half per cent upon an average valuation, $5,000, and the valuation of each block is indorsed upon the lease; the company have absolute control over the blocks leased; they have all the blocks, and all but a few of the solar works; by agreement, once or twice in each year we issue a programme, that we will make so much salt to each block in each season, and the price we will pay per bushel for manufacturing the same, and request all to notify us if they will accept those terms, and sign an agreement; we agree to give each district its proportion of the salt, and distribute it among the blocks in each district; the quantity this season is fifteen thousand bushels to each block, about 4,740,000 bushels in all; and we agree to pay 19 cents per bushel to makers, and to furnish them coal at $5 per ton; we have the right in our leases to employ any one we may choose in the blocks to make the salt; are not obliged to employ the lessees; our stock was first $160,000, and we issued to the owners of the blocks, so that they took stock, paid for it at par, and there was just enough to give them five per cent on their valuation, so that no man has any share of the profits unless he holds stock, and then only as a stockholder; over nine-tenths of the owners took stock; more than one-half of the stock was taken by the salt block owners; the balance was taken by the coarse salt interest, so that the whole stock was taken by those interested in salt manufacturing, and is mostly held by them now; it has been sold for forty cents on a dollar in the market; last year about $15,000 of it sold for $1.40 to $1.50; it has been sold for $2 10.

The eost per bushel for fine salt is as follows:

Cost of boiling, 19 cents per bushel, multiplied by five (num

of bushels in a barrel), gives for making per barrel,...

95

05

10

The cost of manufacturing coarse salt per barrel of five

The schedule marked (A) is our price list, at which salt is now

And the Oswego price applies to all sold on the American side.

We sold about 1,000,000 or 1,200,000 bushels that net us $2.35 per barrel last year; we sold in the State of New York (except New York city and Pennsylvania), 2,071,789 bushels, at $2.20 to $2.25 per barrel, net last year; we sold in New York city, 748,314 bushels, which net us per barre! at Syracuse, $1.60 to $1.75; in Canada, 510,330 bushels, which net us per barrel at Syracuse $2.00.

At the lower lake ports 1,916,900 bushels, which net us at Syracuse, per barrel, $1.99.

At the upper lake ports 1,911,170 bushels, which net at Syra cuse $2.03 per barrel.

On figuring, the net average price on whole amount of sales is $2.03. The profits of the company for the last twelve months, up to April 1st, is $107,016.58; with the exception of New York city, we sell all our salt so that it brings us cost.

Examined by Mr. McDONALD.

At the time of organization blocks were valued at $5,000; just before, were worth $4,000; immediately after, worth $5,000; now, worth about $8,000. The change from wood to coal blocks was made by the owners, and company allowed a value of $700, to be added to the aggregate value of block; the average actual cost was about $1,000; the nineteen cents for manufacturing is just about what it cost the manufacturer, and give him good day wages if he run it himself; we pay to the owners of fine works rent on a valuation of $1,777,613.76; and to the owners of coarse salt works on a valuation of $1,618,640.00.

We have run up to 180 blocks this year, each block will make from 250 to 280 bushels per day.

Examined by Mr. BELL.

In 1862 we had an early spring; we had a large amount of salt on hand wintered over; we made salt in December, and sold all we made in November; if we had the same demand for it as we did have in 1862, we would always make as much as we did in 1862; if we could produce it in June and July, we would sell from 500,000 to 750,000 bushels of salt more than we now do, but we cannot get brine at that time for it.

Examined by Mr. COMSTOCK.

I have been employed in manufacturing salt all my life, and am now secretary and managing agent of the Salt Company; I am familiar with the books of the company, they are correctly kept; the statement produced is correct and a true one. (Put in evidence and marked "B.") It is correct and true in all the matters set forth therein; no profits or dividends have been made by the company except what is therein stated; it truly states the profits arising from the coal contract; the company in 1863, took a lease of a coal mine

in Pennsylvania, and operated under that lease at a eertain royalty or tariff per ton,(16 and 18 cents per ton) until January 1866, when it sold the lease at a clear bonus of $510,000, and taking a contract of seventeen years duration for a future supply of coal, as shown by the statement; that bonus is included in the statement of profits; in 1859 the salt business was very much depressed, price very low, and the general business lost money; the company was formed in the winter of 1860, in January and February; during the first year of its operations it lost money; in 1861 it made some money, a dividend of seven per cent on the capital stock; the year 1862, was a very profitable one. The company then made all the profits it has made on salt; we divided from March 1st to Nov. 15, $380,000; deducting the profits on coal and those on salt in 1862 and 1863, the company never made any money, but on the contrary lost; in the year 1862, the blockade of the Mississippi cut off the usual supply in the west in year 1862, we allowed a drawback to consumers of salt in this State, so that it should not cost over $1.50 per barrel, and we paid in those drawbacks $150,000; I think that in 1864 the company would have suspended, were it not for the coal lease which it then procured, and in 1866 we would have suspended were it not for the profitable sale of that lease; on an average the company used in addition to the capital stock, about 1 million of dollars; we use the capital of $320,000; our surplus of $768,000, and a further sum of about $400,000, borrowed by us; it has been the policy of the company from its origin to manufacture and sell all the salt that can be sold without a loss; It has never been the policy to abridge the quantity produced, but on the contrary, we have refused to do so; our prices are regulated by the demand at Chicago; our practical price is $2.25 per barrel; it costs us about thirty-five to forty cents to get it there and pay agency fees, per barrel; it is a question therefore, of selling it at that price, or of abandoning the market, for Saginaw salt is now under selling us there by five or ten cents per barrel, and the same is now the case in the lower and upper lake ports; in 1865 we had a tremendous freshet that put us back in the spring, and also a strike of hands; we, as a company, made no money; we have always paid our rents; taking a general view of the salt business, the capital invested is about $1,500,000; the total amount in property and cash, aside from the property of the State, is $6,000,000; this combination between the lessors and the [CON. No. 159.]

2

company expires 1st of March, 1870; the leases then expire; the production of salt, if made by individuals instead of companies, would fall off; the market would not be sold down so close; we have not got more than cost on the average sales in New York city, and a small margin over, in Canada; I think if our company were furnishing this supply of brine they would expend $100,000 in sinking wells, and getting a better supply of brine; I think the net gain to the State will be $30,000 per year, from the salt works during the last seven years; I think the company could afford to pay the State, a fixed price of $50,000 or $60,000 per year, and furnish the brine at its own expense; all expenses to be paid by the company; that would be better for the State than one cent per bushel.

The Committee met December 7th, 1867, and the following testimony was taken :

Thomas G. Alvord called and sworn says:

I have been a manufacturer of salt about twenty years, and acquainted with the business twenty-five years, and as conversant with the business as any one I know; in my opinion, since my first acquaintance with the business, it has not paid to the manufacturer more that than seven per cent. on his capital invested, and I think it has paid less than that.

Cross-examined-I mean by the manufacturer the owners of the salt erections, and who make the salt; from manufacturing alone, I am entirely satisfied there have never been any fortunes made, nor much more than a competency; in 1866 it cost from 18 to 20 cents to boil a bushel of salt; a first class block, containing 60 kettles, would cost to-day $8,000; an inferior block of the lower class cost $3,500, or thereabouts, to build before the war; in the very best of times, I have never known a 60 kettle block to be built for less than $2,800; the very poorest, as they are to-day, would be worth from $2,500 to $3,000; one block, if in order, would make about 36 bushels to the ton of coal; the simple work of boiling costs 3 cents per bushel; the incidental expenses of repair will annually average $50 while running, and it would cost from $250 to $400 to set over each spring.