/: 



SEA BAMBOO (ECKLONfA BUCCINALIS) AS A 

 SOURCE OF POTASH. 



By Gilbert Frederick Britten, B.A. 



{Plates 2-3.) 



During- the past few months the author has been engaged 

 in carrying- out laboratory experiments to determine whether 

 it was possible to establish in South Africa an industry for the 

 manufacture of a chemical which had hitherto been entirely 

 imported, and which there was reason to anticipate could be 

 more profitably made here. The results of these investigations 

 are not yet ready for publication, but I may mention that in the 

 search for raw materials I was led to a consideration of the 

 available sources of potash in South Africa, and of these I 

 determined to examine seaweed, and more particularly that 

 variety of seaweed which abounds in proximity to the shores 

 of the Cape Peninsula known as sea bamboo. The literature 

 upon the subject, regarded from a South African standpoint, is 

 not very informative. In 1908 Juritz* drew attention to the 

 possibility of seaweed as a source of potash, and quoted exten- 

 sively ifrom various European and American authorties, men- 

 tioning that in the Channel Islands 



the practice obtains of allowing the seaweeds to dry near the shore, 

 and stacking- them, when dry, near the houses, to be used as fuel con- 

 stantly kept burning on the hearths. The ash thus obtained is sold at 

 about 6d. per bushel, and is applied to the soil at the rate of 2k tons per 

 acre when the wheat is sown. The ash thus applied is probably very 

 imperfectly burnt, but Golfier-Besseyre has found that many a seaweed 

 ash as obtained in practice, contains up to and over 50 per cent, of water- 

 soluble salts. These salts have yielded the following percentage results 

 upon analysis : — 



Potassium sulphate 11 to 44 



Potassium chloride 12 to 35 



Sodium chloride 9 to 70 



Sodium sulphate o to 35 



Sodium carbonate o to 15 



More recently, Lundie and Hallackf have undertaken the 

 analysis of several kinds of seaweeds growing adjacent to the 

 coast-line of the Cape Peninsula. The following table is taken 

 from their report: — 



* '"The Utilisation of Seaweeds for Manurial Purposes and in other 

 Industries": Agric. Jouni. C.G H. (1908), 501. 



t Rept. S.A. Assoc, for Adv. of Science, Capetown (1910) 186. 



