THE ECONOMIC USES OF BROWN SEA-WEEDS 339- 



knowledge of the practice obtains at Orkney since the times o£ the 

 French wars, and tlien only as an exception on the part of the 

 destitute, with food at famine prices. 



III. The utilization of weeds as food for cattle, rests on surer 

 ground, annuals having a greater capacity for dealing with vegetable 

 material of the quality of hay than man. Fucoids were made use of 

 for cattle and pigs in these islands up to about 60 years ago ; but 

 rather as a substitute when the ordinary food-supply got scarce. 

 Fucus {Felvetia) caniculatus was most in favour for cattle (Cowtang), 

 and F. vesiculosusiov pigs (Paddy tang). When harvest was ihiished, 

 cattle, sheep, and pigs, were let loose on the fields — a hundred years 

 ago there were no turnips and mangolds — and the pigs went to the 

 sea-shore and fed on the Twin-bladder-wrack. A pig is a very 

 good guide, and the succulent receptacles of Fucus vesiculosus are 

 the best the sea-shore has to offer, the pods being readily chewed, 

 and full of reproductive cells in non-cellulose integuments. For the 

 cattle Felveiia was cut off the rocks, with other Fuci, as the first 

 available {F. vesiculostis and F. plati/carjnis), carted home, boiled, 

 and the "brae" was poured on hay, chaff and husks of oats. Asco- 

 phi/llum, which does not bear pods till spring, was never used by 

 anybody. Fuci have been so cut and used fresh for fodder within 

 living memory. 



The most striking economic use of sea-weed, however, survives on 

 the Island of North Ronaldsay, the most northern outlier of the 

 Orkneys ; the island contains 440 inhabitants, it is about three miles 

 in length, and from one to one-and-a-half in breadth, and is nearly 

 all well cultivated. It is surrounded by a high stone wall, as near 

 the sea as it was safe to build it ; outside this dyke there is not more 

 tlian half an acre, covered with grass of a very coarse kind, and be3^ond 

 this pale the farmers and crofters are allowed to have from 2000 to 

 2500 sheep of a small native breed ; but the numbers allowed each 

 crofter are regulated by estate rules. Each crofter has a particular 

 mark, as slits, holes, notches, curves, in different combinations, 

 registered by a committee, which he imprints on the ears of the 

 young lambs every season. The full-grown sheep is a handsome 

 animal, no bigger than a Cheviot lamb a month old, and weighs when 

 killed about twenty pounds. They are of different colours ; but the 

 prevailing shade is black. The other colours are grey, pied, moorit, 

 and dirty white. The wool is fine, and is used for general purposes ; 

 a few crosses have been introduced, but they are not a success, at 

 least in appearance, being ugly, deep-bellied, and lacking the alert- 

 ness of the native. These sheep are fed entirely on sea-weed all the 

 3'ear round. When gales and snow-storms occur they have shelter at 

 the lee side of the dyke. On the occasion of my visit to the island I 

 noticed groups of fours and sixes going down to meet the incoming 

 tide — it was a very fine day — and seizing hold of whatever their 

 favourite was, — Alaria, fronds of L. saccharin a, — chew away at 

 the end of it. They did not object to standing knee deep in the sea 

 to reach their food. In a few cases two had got hold of an end of 

 the same sacchurina, and bv the time tlieir liuads met tlie iced was a 



