CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAMB. iad 
for three years, we find there are two main growing periods about six 
months apart; the larger and better growth of the two being from July 
to September, the other one January to April, the winter period requir- 
ing a little longer, owing to cloudy weather. Dark days retard growth, 
while bright sunny days accelerate it, no doubt aided by the water 
being more or less obscured by the sand and silt from the rainy season 
and storms that agitate the shore line. 
After the growing end is destroyed, or cut off, it takes about 170 to 
180 days for the kelp to grow from the holdfast to the surface (the mean 
depth of bed No. 21 being seven fathoms). There is a constant growth 
of fresh shoots, about four to six feet under the cuttings, which can best 
be seen after a bed is cut over. If the cutters had cut lower than four 
feet under the surface of the water these shoots would have been 
destroyed and thus the appearance of the kelp on the surface would 
have been delayed. This same appearance of young kelp on a cut over 
bed can also be noticed on portions of bed No. 24, which owing to its 
greater variation in depth, is not as uniform in its fresh growth as the 
former bed. 
A ten-foot length, floating on the surface at a falling tide was 
measured back under water to a depth of ten feet and cut in the 
endeavor to find the maximum number of leaves and their lengths on 
this twenty foot cutting. The results were as follows: 
1st foot from growing end, 9 leaves, weighed 1 oz., longest leaf 12 inches and the 
diameter of the stipe just back of the splitting area was 3/32 inches 
4th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 3 oz., longest leaf 17 inches 
5th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 3 oz., longest leaf 19 inches 
6th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 3 o0z., longest leaf 19 inches 
7th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 34+ oz., longest leaf 19 inches 
8th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 34 oz., longest leaf 194 inches 
9th foot from growing end 5 leaves, weighed 34 oz., longest leaf 192 inches 
10th foot from growing end 5 leaves, weighed 3% oz., longest leaf 194 inches 
WWW ORK KTP TIOTOI NOON 
1ith foot from growing end leaves, weighed 3 oz., longest leaf 194 inches 
12th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 33 oz., longest leaf 20 inches 
138th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 22 oz., longest leaf 18 inches 
14th foot from growing end 4 leaves, weighed 22 oz., longest leaf 18 inches 
15th foot from growing end 4 leaves, weighed 2% oz., longest leaf 184 inches 
16th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 2 oz., longest leaf 184 inches 
17th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 2% oz., longest leaf 184 inches 
18th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 2 oz., longest leaf 184 inches 
19th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 2 oz., longest leaf 19 inches 
20th foot from growing end leaves, weighed 2. oz., longest leaf 20 inches 
The diameter of the last foot of stipe was 9/32 of an inch. Plotting 
the above figures, we find that there is a wide discrepancy between the 
weight and the number of leaves up to the third foot. From here on, 
while the number of leaves per foot remains constant up to the tenth 
foot, the weight gradually increases up to the same division. From here 
on, the variation is very small; at the seventeenth foot the weight falls 
a little lower than the general average, the tenth foot marking the 
nodal point, from which on one hand, the growing end, the number of 
leaves and the weight per foot gradually approach from nothing, to 
about the fourth foot, where the number of leaves per foot remain eon- 
stant up to the ten-foot or nodal point. From this point toward the 
holdfast, weights and numbers of leaves have about the same constant, 
rising and falling in unison. 
The maximum number of leaves is at or near the third foot; while 
the greatest weight per foot is at the tenth. The size of the stipe follows 
