1 ?
2 SALT REVENUE DEPARTMENT FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1898-99,
3 Rajputdna, Central India, and the North-Western Provinces
4 and Oudh; 6,00,574 maunds having paid excise duty during
5 the year, as compared with 4,24,827 maunds during 1897-98—
6 an increase of 1,75,747 maunds.
7 Under charges, the slight increase in the cost of establish-
8 ment was due to the Assistant Commissioner having drawn an
9 annual increment to his pay during the year. Contingent
10 expenditure was heavier, as a larger supply of salt had
11 to be purchased from manufacturers to meet the increased
12 demand.
13 18. Pachbadra salt is obtained by the solar evaporation
14 of brine in large pits excavated to the level of the brine
15 springs in the bed of the depression which forms the source.
16 These pits are on an average about 230 feet in length by 60
17 feet in breadth and are about 12 feet in depth. Brine at about
18 saturation point flows into them to a depth of about three
19 feet, and as evaporation proceeds, the inflow continues, until
20 the pits are full of salt up to the brine level. The thorny
21 branches of a desert shrub are thrown into the brine when
22 precipitation commences, in order to facilitate the crystalliza-
23 tion of the salt. The average outturn of a pit is about 10,000
24 maunds, and as the day temperatures are very high during
25 the hot season, and the atmosphere of the desert country in
26 which the source is situate is extremely dry, a crop of salt is
27 obtained from each pit at intervals of about two years. The
28 brine being obtained from springs, the annual monsoon rain-
29 fall only affects indirectly the production of salt. A favourable
30 fall renders the yield from the springs more copious, and by
31 diluting the brine tends to the formation of better salt as the
32 result of retarded precipitation during the hot months of the
33 year. Good salt can, however, be obtained at this source in
34 almost any season, and the expansion of the trade in Pach-
35 badra salt which has recently occurred is therefore very satis-
36 factory. The rainfall of the year amounted to 11°69 inches,
37 compared with 13°36 inches during 1897-98. The fall in both
38 years would have been sufficient for the needs of the country
39 and of salt manufacture, if its distribution had been normal ;
40 but in each case the greater proportion of the rain occurred
41 during July, and much of the benefit of it was lost owing to
42 the great heat of the two succeeding months. . The seasons
43 during the two past years have therefore been unfavourable.
44 The salt is, supplied by the manufacturers at a uniform
45 rate of one anna a maund, and is stored in oblong pyramids on
46 the banks of the pits from which it is obtained. In the first
47 instance the contents of these heaps of salt are estimated and
48 paid for by cubic measurement calculated at the rate of 25
49 sers to a cubic foot; and later, when the heaps are cleared,
50 the value of any excess discovered by actual weizhment is
51 disbursed. In this manner the manufacturers are paid for
52 every maund of salt delivered by them to the Department.
53 The rate fixed, namely, one anna a maund, has been proved by
54 experience to be amply remunerative.
55 There are 265 registered working pits at the source, and
56 of these 184 are reported to be in good order. Salt was taken
57 from 107 pits during the year. The remaining pits are esti~
58 mated to have contained about 134 Jakhs of maunds of salt at
59 the close of the year. Fifty of them were emptied during
60 1897-98, and salt was still forming in the emptied pits when
61 the year ended and the above estimate was framed.
62 ( 13 )
63 PACHBADRA-.
64 Manufacture of salt.
65 Cost of manufacture.
66 Salt produced and stocks
67 available.