SEAWEED INDFSTRIES OF JAPAN. 



145 



size is aboui 5 by 3 feet, but smaller sheets in neat packages are prepared for the 

 retail trade. A favorite form of package for the wholesale trade is a roll:', feet high 

 and I! or 7 inches in diameter, like Japanese matting. 



Funori is readily converted into a glue or paste by immersion in boiling fresh 

 water, and in that form is extensively used in Japan, and small quantities are 

 exported. The principal objects for which it is employed are the glazing and stiffen- 

 ing of fabrics, its most common use being as a starch for clothing. Other uses are 

 the stiffening and coating of papers, the cementing of walls and tiles, the stiffening 



A roll of funori (about one-eighth natural size). 



of threads, and the decorating of porcelain. The funori sent to Europe is for sizing 

 textiles. Japanese women sometimes clean their hair with a thin solution, although 

 the rationale of the operation is not evident. 



PRICES AND OUTP1 T. 



The price of funori varies with the quality. The purest grade sold '(in L903) for 

 10 yen per lo kwan. wholesale, or at the rate of 24 cents a pound; the medium 

 quality brought is yen per LO kwan ( 1 1 cents a pound), and the poorest grade.-, made 

 from substitute,-, for Gloiopeltis, were worth only 5 or • > yen per In kwan (3 to 3.6 

 cents a pound).. The production during recent years has been from 2 to 3 million 

 pounds annually ; in 1-901 it was 2,943,000 pounds. The following table shows the 

 amount and value of the output between 1897 and 1901: 



B. B. F. 1904— li 



