II.] 



SEA WEED 



75 



malt is dried) are sometimes available, and the latter is 

 a valuable and active manure if it can be obtained 

 cheaply. 



In the ncifjhbourhood of the sea other materials can 

 sometimes be obtained ; sprats or herrings, when a glut 

 renders such fish unsaleable, mussels, and starfish or 

 '* five fingers " collected from the oyster beds, are all 

 used in the Kentish hop gardens, and the two latter 

 supply carbonate of lime as well as nitrogen. Off the 

 south and west coasts, and in the Channel Islands, 

 seaweed forms the staple manure, being collected after 

 heavy weather and laid up in heaps to dry and rot. On 

 the heaviest soils it is sometimes ploughed in immedi- 

 ately after gathering, just as "long" dung is used on 

 clays to open up the soil. The following analyses 

 (Table XVIII.) show the composition of three different 

 kinds of seaweed used for manure in Jersey : — 



Table XVIII.— Analyses of Seaweed. Russell. 



Facus. 



Lamlnaria. 



Water .... 



Organic nutter . 

 Containing Nitrogen . 

 Ash . 

 Containing Phosphoric Acid 



„ Potash 



,, Sand 



30-5 

 Si-3 

 1.56 



lS-2 

 0-50 



4-5 

 0-86 



«;2-8 

 30-0 



17-2 

 0-43 

 37 

 0-54 



8es Grass. 



22-6 

 39-1 

 0-52 



1S.3 

 o-ti 

 0-56 



2-S 



Thus, even the poorest of these samples is in its 

 wet condition about as rich as the ordinary farmyard 

 manure, while the fucus would be valued as highly as 

 £2 a ton. 



These results are probably above the average ; a 

 number of samples of Fucus from the North Sea gave 

 only 0-3 to 04 per cent, of nitrogen, and o-i to 02 per 



