Find St. Clair on the map of Michigan. Which is it from Detroit? From Grand Rapids? From Cleveland? You see in this picture the finished product of a great salt factory. Here the refined salt is stored away for packing. After the salt has been removed from the evaporating vats, it is proper degree of fineness. You know at least two grades of salt--the fine table salt and the coarse cooking salt. The men here are busy barreling the salt. Some of them fill the barrels and others nail on the heads. From this room the barrels are trucked into a storing room. From there they are loaded in cars or on boats and are shipped to all parts of the country. In 1914 the value of the salt produced in the United States was $10,000,000. There are three ways in which salt is obtained.

One is from brine pumped from salt wells. This is the way the salt you see in the picture was brought out of the earth. In other places salt is mined blocks and then ground and refined. The third is by evaporating sea water. Sea water is very salty. This salt is brought down to the ocean by rivers. And who knowns how many salt beds the waters of the ocean actually touch in its thousands of square miles of bottom? In the East and West Indies, along the Chinese coast, and along the Mediterranean Sea much salt is obtained by evaporating sea water. Make a list of 10 foods in which salt is used for seasoning. How is salt used to preserve meats and vegetables? Why is salt sprinkled on icy pavements in winter time; or put into frozen pumps?