106 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 
from 25 to 100 feet in depth below the water, are found in beds along 
the shore where rocky ledges or loose roeks abound and to which the 
plants attach themselves by means of holdfasts. These beds occur 
usually in exposed places where the wave action is pronouneed. 
The plant itself consists of a holdfast or root-like structure which 
attaches itself to rocks at the bottom; stipes or stems, unbranched, 
which grow up from this holdfast until they, sooner or later, reach and 
spread out upon the surface of the water; and lamina or leaves which 
occur at intervals along the stipes, the intervals varying from 2 to 3 
feet near the holdfast to a slight space near the growing end. The 
terminal leaf of the growing stem splits, a new terminal leaf forms and 
splits, and as the process continues, lamina along the stipe are 
increased; while by the elongation of the distance between lamina the 
total length of the stipe is increased. 
The plant reproduces itself by means of spores which are developed 
in spore bodies located, usually, on leaves near the holdfast, although 
they are occasionally found on leaves near the tip of the plant. In this 
regard, Dr. R. P. Brandt, Botanist of the Scripps Institution, will soon 
be ready to publish some interesting observations made by him in his 
recent studies of Macrocystis pyrifera. 
The beds of Macrocystis with which the California kelp industry is 
concerned extend along the coast from San Diego to Point Concepcion 
and about the islands offshore. During the last year the beds from San 
Diego to San Juan Point and about San Clemente, San Nicholas and 
Santa Barbara Islands were used by the Hercules Company, Swift & 
Company, and numerous handpickers; the beds about Long Beach and 
Wilmington were used by the Diamond Match Company, the Pacific 
Produets Company, and the Sea Products Company ; while in the Sum- 
merland region, the United States Experimental Plant, the Lorned 
Manufacturing Company, and the California Chemical Company were 
operating. The total amount of kelp used during the year was nearly 
400,000 tons wet, the amount of potash (K,O) per ton averaging 
about 1.5 per cent. With this were considerable quantities of iodine, 
nitrogen, and other by-products such as acetones and ketones. 
The kelp is cut by harvesters which are very similar to grain- 
reapers, the notable feature being that reciprocals cut the plants 2 or 4 
feet below the surface and the cut kelp is then carried up over the 
draper and deposited on the barge. Its treatment then varies accord- 
ing to whether it is to go through the “‘wet’’ or the ‘‘dry’’ process. 
Sometimes it is ground fine; sometimes it is cut into short lengths; and 
sometimes it is left in long strands. At the factory the kelp may be 
dried in large rotary driers, ground and made into fertilizer; or dried, 
incinerated, and then made into fertilizer; or, again, mixed with certain 
chemicals, permitted to ferment, and then broken up into different 
products by the processes of evaporation, crystallization, and fraction- 
alization. 
The last legislature placed the control of the kelp beds in the hands 
of the State Fish and Game Commission, and the scientific study of the 
plant. in the hands of the Seripps Institution for Biological Research of 
