KELP. 



KELP. 



clod, and keeping the root of the corn moist 

 during the most parching heals of summer. 

 In stormy weather, the sea does often tear up 

 from the rocks vast quantities of this weed, and 

 casts it on the shore, where it is carefully ga- 

 thered up by the glad husbandman." 



The plants chiefly valued for making French 

 varec are Fucus vesiculosus, F. nodosus, F. serra- 

 tas, Laminar ia digit at a and bulbosa, Himanthalia 

 lorea, and Chorda filum. Twenty-four tons of 

 the sea-weeds make one ton of kelp. The 

 Jersey and Guernsey Agricultural Society con- 

 firmed this account of the excellent effects of 

 the ashes from sea-weed, in 1797, in their re- 

 port to the English Board of Agriculture, when 

 they observed 



" It is judged, that a chabot (half a bushel), 

 strewed over a perch of ground in winter or 

 the beginning of spring, will be a sufficient 

 manure. Our labourers are unanimously of 

 opinion, that it gives a full ear to the corn, and 

 prevents it being laid those who have any 

 varech to sell may at all times get a chabot of 

 wheat for a quarter or six bushels of varech." 

 (Com. to Board of Agr. vol. i. p. 216.) 



The fertilizing effects of sea-weed are not 

 confined to the better description of soils ; the 

 poorest kind of heath lands are benefited by the 

 application of this manure ; thus, Mr. John 1 * 

 Sherriff, of Haddington, has described the 

 effects of sea-weed, or sea-tang, as it is called 

 in Scotland, on common heath or moor land, 

 in the following terms : " Sea-weed, which is a 

 capital manure for any land, may often be pro- 

 cured at little or no expense. Crops almost 

 incredible of turnips, barley, clover, and rye, 

 have, to the writer's certain knowledge, been 

 obtained on an extensive tract of the most 

 miserable benty wastes and poor rabbit war- 

 rens, by the powers of this manure; soils which, 

 twelve years since, were not worth three shil- 

 lings per acre. The bent was torn up by the 

 common swing plough, burnt, and the ashes 

 spread ; the soil was then manured with the 

 sea-tang, as much as could be ploughed in. 

 Turnips were immediately drilled, and rolled, 

 to prevent blowing ; this crop was succeeded 

 by rye or barley, and that by red clover and 

 rye-grass. On the clover stubble, and some- 

 times after the turnip crop, plenty of tang was 

 again laid, the ley ploughed down, and sown 

 with oats, barley, or rye, and frequently with 

 turnips, which in this way have succeeded ad- 

 mirably on the ley with one ploughing." (Com. 

 to Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 122.) It is certain, 

 from the" experiments of the late Mr. Knight, 

 that green manures of all kinds are an admir- 

 able manure ; and it seems well established 

 that the more the juice of the vegetables so 

 employed is impregnated with saline matters, 

 the more fertilizing are their effects : thus, in 

 Bavaria, borage is very commonly cultivated 

 for this purpose, and the reason assigned for 

 the preference shown to this plant is, that it 

 contains soda and other salts. (Gardener's 

 Mag. vol. i. p. 200.) 



I have no doubt that in many situations the 

 sea-weed may be successfully cultivated on the 

 sea-coast, expressly for manure ; and it seems 

 that for this purpose hardly any thing is re- 

 quired except placing stones on the shore, to 

 683 



which the fuci can attach th'emselves, and in 

 two years the crop may be cut. According to 

 Mr. Jamieson (Miner, of Scottish Isles, vol. 2, p. 

 251), various kinds of stones have been em- 

 ployed in Scotland, as basalt, sandstone, and 

 limestone, which last is the best adapted for 

 the purpose, and after that the basalt. 



There are also in many parts of the coast 

 of Britain extensive tracts of land which it 

 would be difficult to enclose, and yet these 

 places are either already covered with a coarse 

 turf, or might be so with a little management; 

 and this turf, when cut and carted on to the 

 light upland soils, is found almost invariably 

 to be an admirable fertilizer; for instance, 

 when spread over land during the winter, and 

 then turned into the soil, for potatoes, the crop 

 is sure to be excellent. No description of fer- 

 tilizer, perhaps, can be named, which freshens, 

 as the farmers say, an over-cropped soil so 

 much as a dressing of from 20 to 25 loads per 

 acre of the turf from the sea-shore, soaked with 

 sea-water ; and no plant delights in fresh soil 

 so much as the potatoe. . It is, therefore, more 

 than probable, that the exertions of the com- 

 monly cultivated corn crops are peculiar noxi- 

 ous to this plant ; and it is certain that the 

 potatoe, by the deposit which it leaves in the 

 soil, renders it distasteful to the crop by which 

 it is succeeded. Thus the wheat plant rarely 

 looks well on soils where the potato has im- 

 mediately preceded it. Saline fertilizers, in 

 these cases, are sure to be serviceable, for they 

 unite with, and neutralize the effects, as well 

 as promote the decomposition, of the excretory 

 matters which all plants deposit in the soil. 



The chief fertilizing qualities possessed by 

 barilla are attributable to the presence of soda. 

 This alkali is found in all marine vegetables, 

 and in most of those which grow on the sea- 

 shore. It has been used in several experi- 

 ments as a manure since the price of soda has 

 been so much reduced; but these have not 

 been conducted with sufficient accuracy to 

 enable us to judge of its value as a fertilizer. 

 What little has been done, promises well. 

 Thus, it has been found, when a pound of soda 

 is dissolved in 14 gallons of water, that this 

 solution forms an excellent liquid manure for 

 many culinary vegetables; for instance, the 

 vegetable-marrow plant, when thus treated, has 

 been found to flourish better in common garden 

 mould than other plants growing on a dunghill. 

 And, as I have remarked in another pla^e, na- 

 ture is here again our instructor: the fertile 

 plains of Syria, and some of the most profusely 

 luxuriant fields of the orientalist, abound in 

 carbonate of soda. This alkali not only enters 

 into the composition of many vegetables, but 

 it promotes the growth of ail, by preserving 

 the moisture of the soil, and by accelerating 

 the decomposition of the numerous organic 

 substances found in all cultivated lands. The 

 sewer water of towns and cities, which has 

 been found so very rich and fertilizing as a 

 dressing for grass lands, abounds with soda ; 

 for that is contained in the soap suds and other 

 refuse washings which such drainage matters 

 always convey. Soda has been found in very 

 sensible proportions in the urine of the horse, 

 by M. Fourcroy ; and in that of the ass, by Mr. 



