S2 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



fornia. We may be proud of the California sea-salt, 

 for American ingenuity and modern scientific 

 methods have revolutionized this the most ancient 

 of industries, and now we produce salt of exception- 

 ally fine quality. The California salt makers have 

 made some use of the mother liquor from the salt 

 crystals, and they now prepare several by-products 

 of considerable value from this liquor which was 

 formerly wasted. The most important of these is mag- 

 nesium oxychloride cement, which is finding wide use 

 in our industries. Potassium chloride, magnesia, 

 Epsom salts, and bromine are other by-products 

 which have been produced. 



Vegetable life exists in the sea in such great abun- 

 dance that various observers have estimated the 

 marine vegetation to be equal in quantity to the 

 plant growth of the land. The multitudinous species 

 of marine plants are utilized scarcely at all. The 

 very name, seaweed, by which they are ordinarily 

 called, indicates that these plants, like the weeds of 

 the fields, are commonly considered to be of little 

 if any value. In Europe and Japan, however, iodine 

 is prepared from certain seaweeds. The weeds are 

 burned, and the ash obtained by this procedure is 

 leached with water. Potassium salts are crystallized 

 from the resultant solution, and the residue is used 

 for the preparation of iodine and potassium iodide. 

 Iodine, agar-agar, and Irish moss are the only sea- 

 weed products sold in America on an important scale. 

 Irish moss, which is prepared in Massachusetts, is 

 used for the preparation of blanc-mange. Recently 



