ADDRESSES 177 



first. These results can be secured only by the application 

 of large quantities of manure. Barn-yard manure and also 

 artificial fertilizers are used; but the main dependence is 

 placed upon the vraic or sea- weed. The old legend runs: 

 "No vraic, no corn; no corn, no cows; no cows, no bread 

 for children's mouths." This is either washed ashore by 

 the action of the waves, or, at the period of maturity, is 

 separated by bill-hooks or sickles fastened to long poles 

 and drawn in by rakes with a head two or three feet wide 

 and handles twelve to twenty feet long. The cutting and 

 gathering of the vraic is a general holiday, terminating 

 usually in a frolic. It is only allowed twice a year: once in 

 February, beginning with the first new or full moon and 

 lasting five weeks; and again in June, beginning in the 

 middle of the month and closing on the 31st of August. 

 Whole families will frequently unite, and, going to some 

 spot previously selected, work hard all day, the men stand- 

 ing up to their waists in water, using their unwieldy sickles 

 and rakes, and the women and children dragging the prize 

 up beyond the reach of the tide. With the coming of night 

 the sea-weed is removed in carts, and then all hands, meet- 

 ing at the house of some one of their number, spend the 

 hours in dancing and singing. During the first four weeks of 

 the summer cutting, only the poor, or those having no 

 cattle, are allowed to gather this harvest of the sea. That 

 cast up by the waves may be taken at all seasons by any per- 

 son between the hours of sunrise and eight o'clock at night. 

 About sixty thousand loads are gathered annually, valued 

 for manurial purposes at about fifty cents per load. It is 

 applied either fresh at the rate of ten loads to the acre, or 

 in the form of ashes obtained by burning it, a load yielding 



