38 DEPARTME-NT OF THE l^AYAL SERVICE 



6 GEORGE V, A. 1916 



(7) No company or individual should be given permanent or unrestricted rights 

 to remove and utilize kelp in British Columbia waters until the information outlined 

 has been obtained. 



(8) The desirability of establishing -a Dominion experimental plant in the 

 northern or central part of the British Columbia coast to carry out further experi- 

 ments as to the best method of obtaining the commercial products should be con- 

 sidered. 



geographical distribution, these companies are located in the vicinity of Puget sound with head- 

 quarters chiefly at Seattle, and on the southern California coast near Long Beach, Los Angeles, 

 and San Diego. Two of these companies were mentioned in this report for 1912. 



•• The American Potash Co., with offices at Los Angeles, Cal., plans to utilize the kelp in the 

 vicinity of Long Beach. This company was formed by the merging of two other companies, one 

 of which was the Coronado Chemical Company, of San Diego and Cardiff. It is stated that 

 work will begin early in 1914 on the manufacture of potash and other by-products from kelp 

 at a plant to be built at Long Beach. The plant is to be erected on the unit system, and con- 

 struction work on it began early in 1913. The work of manufacturing potash will begin on the 

 completion of the new buildings that are expected to be finished about April 1, 1914. 



"The Pacific Products Co., of San Pedro, Cal., with a capital of $100,000, is reported to 

 have a factory site on the California coast opposite the kelp grove outside of Point Permin. 



"The Pacific Products Co., of Seattle, Wash., capitalized at $125,000, will build a factory 

 for the manufacture of fertilizer materials and by-products from fish and kelp at Port Townsend, 

 "Wash. Several beds of kelp have been optioned at the head of Puget sound, where a large 

 quantity of seaweed will be harvested each year and transferred to the factory at Port Town- 

 send. This company will also make a business of obtaining dogfish, and of utilizing the offal 

 from the fish canneries in the vicinity. The first unit of the plant for converting kelp and dogfish 

 into fertilizer material was reported completed in July 1913. 



" The Pacific Kelp Mulch Co., is located at Terminal island, 1 mile east of East San Pedro, 

 on the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroad. The company has been gathering kelp 

 from the ocean during the last two years and disposing of it to the farmers and fruit growers 

 as a fertilizer. The company has developed a machine which harvests the kelp rapidly and on a 

 large scale. The kelp is cut from 4 to 6 feet under water, and care is taken not to disturb the 

 roots of the growing plants'. It is loaded on a barge and brought to the boat landing of the 

 plant. Here it is pitch-forked from the barge on a belt conveyor which conveys it to the cutter, 

 being subjected during the passage to a steaming process which is practically instantaneous and 

 which, it is asserted, removes all the adhering common salt (NaCl) but none of the potash 

 salts. The cutter chops it into pieces 6 to 8 inches long — that is, of a length to be conveniently 

 handled with a manure fork or to be harrowed under the soil after being spread. From the 

 cutter the kelp falls into wagons or to the floor. It is then carted to the railroad and dumped into 

 freight cars and shipped to the centres of consumption. This company has the distinction of 

 being the first to harvest and market kelp on a commercial scale. 



" The material is said to have many advantages as a fertilizer, and these are explained in 

 a small pamphlet which has been issued by the company. 



" The other companies whose names have come to the Survey as proposing to engage in 

 the production of kelp on a commercial scale are the following: Ocean Products Co., Seattle, 

 Wash., North Pacific Kelp Potash Co., Seattle, Wash., Pacific Coast Potash Co., Seattle, Wash., 

 Puget Sound Kelp Potash Co., Seattle, Wash., Aquatic Products Co., Seattle, Wash., Kelp Pro- 

 ducts Co., San Francisco, Cal., Mexican Kelp Fertilizer Co., Los Angeles, Cal. 



" The Survey has no first-hand knowledge of the activities of these companies". 



(ft) Note in Pacific Fisherman, May, 1914, p. 36: — 



" American Potash, Inc., of Long Beach, Cal., which takes the kelp as it grows along 

 the rock near Point Permin and converts it into a fine grade of potash, together with many other 

 ■ by-products, is constantly enlarging its plant, and, it is said, has withdrawn its stock from the 

 market. The plant was shut down for a short time during the latter part of April for the pur- 

 pose of installing a new drier, which consists of an immense endless belt of wovenwire which 

 runs over a hot blast, and also gets a large amount of heat from steam pipes located over the 

 top. The dried kelp is burned and then reduced to its merchantable forms through a process of 

 precipitation." 



(c) Note in the Seattle Post-Intellifjencer, August 23, 1914: — 



"Congress will be asked by the Department of Agriculture to appropriate for the immediate 

 construction of an experimental plant on Puget sound to demonstrate the commercial pos- 

 sibilities in manufacturing potash from kelp. 



" The Bureau of Soils which has just concluded an exhaustive study of the kelp beds of the 

 Pacific from Mexico to Alaska, in a report now being printed, strongly urges the development 

 of the industry, and asserts that the product could be turned out in commercial quantities in 

 from four to six months." 



It should be noted, finally, that in this report I have not considered the possible preparation 

 of phosphates or other substances from kelp. Some of these are indicated in the Congress Report, 

 1912, p. 249, etc. 



