Enormous quantities of salt are thus cheaply manufactured through wind, tide and sun power directed by the cheapest human labor. Before reaching Tientsin we passed the Government storage yards and counted two hundred stacks of salt piled in the open, and more than a third of the yard had been passed before beginning the count. The average content of each stack must have exceeded 3000 cubic feet of salt, and more than 40,000,000 pounds must have been stored in the yards. Armed guards in military uniform patrolled the alleyways day and night. Long strips of matting laid over the stacks were the only shelter against rain.
|
Fig. 197.— Near view of evaporating basins with piles of salt ready to be removed from the fields.
Throughout the length of China's seacoast, from as far
north as beyond Shanhaikwan, south to Canton, salt is
manufactured from sea water in suitable places. In
Szechwan province, we learn from the report of
Consul-General Hosie, that not less than 300,000 tons of salt are
