1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS:
2 ; SAMBHAR.
3 Details of varieties of salt
4 manufactured.
5 Falling off in the outturn
6 explained.
7 Constraction of a large
8 kyar at Nawa,
9 Cost of extraction and
10 storage,
11 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
12 The state of the weather was during the dry months of the
13 year favourable for the production of salt, but the rainfall was
14 too light, and the result was that the lake did not fill sufficient- -
15 ly, nor did the streams whiclf run into the lake carry in any-
16 thing like the usual volume of water. Early in the season,
17 therefore, the brine became too concentrated, and ultimately
18 failed, so that the period available for manufacture after the
19 rainy season ended was short, and the quality of the salt too, as
20 is always the case when the brine becomes too strong in the hot,
21 months of the year, was not so good as usual,
22 33. The accompanying comparative abstract shows the
23 quantities of the several varieties of salt which were manufac-
24 tured at Sambhar during the past four years :-—
25 Method of manufacture, 1892-93. 1893-94, 1894-95. 1895-96.
26 Mds. Mds. Mds. Mds.
27 Iv pans ae .. | 3,880] 19,03,156 | 22,158,918 9,26,514
28 Lake-bed extraction ey Ses ase 1,047 6,60,623 6,20,247
29 Walled enclosure oss ane 78,786 25,46,951 41,58,475 85,82,548
30 Total | 90,666 | 44,51,151 | 70,85,016 | 51,29,04
31 Owing to the scanty rainfall, and the difficulty of procuring
32 brine of proper solution, and in sufficient quantity, along the
33 shallow shores of the lake, the outturn from the clay pans,
34 which are made annually by contractors after the rains are over,
35 fell from maunds 22,15,918 in 1894-95 to maunds 9,26,514 in
36 1895-96, though every effort was made by digging drains and
37 channels into the lake to continue this profitable mode of manu-
38 facture. Similarly the yield of salt obtained from the lake-bed,
39 that is, salt which deposits in the lake without any assistance
40 from protective works or otherwise, was 40,000 maunds short of
41 the amount gathered in 1894-95, The permanent kyars, or walled
42 enclosures, of which we have now ten in complete working order,
43 and which are our great stand-by, alike in seasons of deficient
44 as In seasons of excessive rainfall, produced maunds 35,82,543
45 against maunds 41,58,475, or less by maunds 5,75,932 in
46 1895-96, and the quality was not so good as in thé preceding
47 year ; this again being due to shortness of the brine supply and
48 its too rapid concentration. Another large kyar is now being
49 constructed at Nawa on the western shore of the lake, and this,
50 when ready, will add to the production in seasons like the last,
51 Seven to eight lakhs, and in good years twelve lakhs of maunds
52 of salt. Our great need at the Sambhar lake, now that the sales
53 are so large, is to secure a more constant and pniform supply
54 of salt without being so helpless as we have hitherto been
55 ' in the face of too heavy a rainy season, or too light a one.
56 The cost of extraction and storage of salt during 1895-96,
57 as compared with 1894-95, is as follows:—
58 Pan salt 6°60 pies per maund against 5°83 pies ; lake
59 salt 5°61 against 5°65 pies; kyar salt 3°86 pies aganist 4:07
60 pies. The average cost for all three varieties was 4°57 pies per
61 maund in 1895-96, and 4:77 pies in 1894-95. The smaller cost
62 of extracting and storing lake and kyar salt in 1895-96 was
63 due to the abundant labour available owing tothe scarcity that
64 prevailed in this part of Rajputana. Pan salt is made by
65 contractors, and as they had more work to do this yearin leading
66 ( 2 )