=Salt.=--[J. H. HOLLYER.]--(B. 138.) At the Stoke Prior Works from 500 to 700 hands are employed. The salt manufactured is from 3,000 to 4,000 tons per week. The entire produce of salt in Worcestershire is about 250,000 tons per annum. The Brine pits are about 1,000 feet deep. “Butter salt” is largely exported from Droitwich to India and Australia. Round pans have been introduced since 1865. The aggregate traffic, that is, coal received and salt forwarded, of the Stoke Prior works is about 1,000 tons per day. =Swords and Matchets.=--[F. M. MOLE, JUN.]--(B. 649.) The conventional ideas as to the extent of the sword trade are very erroneous. Our army is small and only horse soldiers and officers carry swords. When once equipped one single sword forger will produce what is required. Hence the matchet trade is combined with sword manufacture. (The matchet is a large knife used in sugar cultivation in the West Indies and Central South America.) The extraordinary demand for swords at the time of the Crimean war, and the inability of English firms to supply it, gave the start to foreign competition. It is not generally known that the larger proportion of the officers’ swords sold in this country are either German swords imported complete or foreign blades mounted in London. There have been several spurts in the trade, but these died out, and at the present time Messrs. Robert Mole and Son, of Birmingham, are the only manufacturers who take Government contracts. An outline of the method of manufacture is given in (B. 649) and is similar to that of edge tools generally--(see p. 208). In ornamenting the hilts of swords fire or mercury gilding[59] is used. The “gripe” is of wood (walnut or beech), and covered with dog fish skin.