ECONOMIC USES OF LICHENS — LLANO 393 



few farmers give so much lichen fodder to their cattle, actual amounts 

 depending on the quantit}^ of gi'ass available. In "moss" districts 

 three to five sledge loads are collected per cow. It is possible for one 

 man to gather from 50 to 100 kilos by hand per day or with imple- 

 ments to increase this up to 300 to 400 kilos per day. Even in older 

 times it was difficult to get laborers for gathering lichen fodder, owing 

 to the small pay, and it was necessary for the State to intervene. 

 School classes were encouraged to collect, receiving 3 ore per kilo per 

 student and 1 ore per kilo for the teacher (4) . 



As an additional food for domestic animals, especially swine, 

 lichens are of value, and Lynge recommends greater use of svinamose 

 (swine-moss) for these animals. Jacob] (13) found that young pigs 

 thrived better on a combination of reindeer moss and ordinary feed 

 than with the latter alone. He also satisfactorily fed rabbits and 

 hares with Evernia prunastri Ach. after extracting the acids. Ice- 

 landers feed Cetraria islavd'wo. to their cattle, pigs, and ponies. It 

 has also been reported good for oxen, while the richness of the milk 

 of the small cows of northern Scandinavia is attributed to this food. 

 An early traveler relates that during a period of famine in Finmarken, 

 the farmers preferred to feed Getrar'm islandica to their cattle than to 

 use the lichen themselves for food and risk the loss of their cattle. 

 Cows were given 10 kilos, horses 6 to 8 kilos, swine 2 to 3 kilos, and 

 sheep and goats 1 to 2 kilos daily (4). 



Nutritional studies. — The nutritive value of these nongrassy range 

 feeds apparently lies in their high lichenin (lichen starch) content. 

 Hesse (13) worked out a comparison of the sugar content of lichens 

 with that of potatoes and found that for Cetraria islandica the pro- 

 portion was 1 of potatoes to 3.35 of lichen ; for CI. ranfflfemia, 1 : 2.5. 

 The former has been found to yield 61 percent carbohydrates and 

 other products of its hemicelluloses. The bitter principle, due to the 

 presence of lichen acids in even the mildest of these plants, can be 

 removed in order to make the fodder more palatable to domestic 

 animals. This is done by soaking them in water for 24 hours or by 

 addition of potassium carbonate to the water for quicker action. 

 Boiling with lye, after which the lichens are thoroughly rinsed with 

 water, is the usual method of preparing the plant for human or animal 

 consumption. Sometimes the lichens are mixed with hot water and 

 straw or meal, and salted before being fed to cattle ; the proportion 

 of meal and salt is gradually reduced until the cattle become accus- 

 tomed to the lichen alone. One kilo of CI. rangiferina (15 to 18 

 percent water content) is considered to be equal to one-third poor 

 fodder or early grass. By analysis this lichen is found to contain 

 1 to 5 percent proteins, the rest carbohydrates and little or no 

 albumen (4). 



