is skimmed off. The liquid is allowed to settle for two hours hefore 

 'being skimmed. A small section, 3 ty 2 ty 3 feet, is partitioned off at 

 the lowest comer of the tank to act as a skimming tank-. The partition 

 is solid on one side and has fire 2-inch holes with 6-inch centers in 

 the end facing the lowest point of the settling tank bottom. Pltigs £ire 

 inserted in the holes before the tank is filled. As the impurities 

 settle and the gelidium Jelly rises to the surface and begins to congeal, 

 the plugs are removed in order, from top to bottom, as the level of the 

 liquid in the settling tank falls. The material in the last two Inches, 

 which contains most of the impurities, is processed separately and sold 

 as a cheap grade. As the liqioid is drawn from the settling tank, it is 

 dipped into a bucket having a pouring spout and then potired into trajrs 

 for the final process of dehydration. The bucket is marked so that 14 

 liters of liquid are drawn off each time. 



4. Dehydration 



a. Trays used for the precooling process are 3 feet long, 



1 foot wide and 3 Inches deep. The trays are filled to within two centi- 

 meters of the top. Pilled in this way, the trays hold 14 liters each. 

 From each batch of 225 kilograms of seaweed enough liquid containing the 

 gelidium in solutioa is obtained to fill 330 trays. This represents 

 about 4,620 liters of liquid (Figure 7). 



b. The liquid- filled trays are placed in racks and left for 

 seven hours. By this time the temperature has dropped to about 40° C. 

 During this period the material has solidified enough to be cut into 

 oblong blocks for the freezing and thawing process. The importEince of 

 keeping the Fh below seven is evidenced at this point. A batch having a 



higher Ph will not solidify 

 to the desired degree. A 

 ! rake type instrument with 

 knife tines is ptilled 

 through the trays of gelatin 

 cutting the material into 

 oblong sections 2 l/4 by 3 

 by 18 inches. The oblong 

 sections are cut into other 

 sizes, depending on the use 

 to which the agar-agar is 

 to be put. For home con- 

 sumption some of the oblong 

 sections £ire cut to half the 

 width: some are left whole. 



c. For export 

 to China and a few other 

 countries the material is 

 shredded. Shredding is done 



Figure 6. Boiling vats and straining tanks. 



10 



