158 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Planting bundles of brush <m which laver i* to grow. 



governments lease the 

 planting privileges. In 

 Tokyo, where five classes 

 of licenses arc issued, de- 

 pending on the yield of the 

 grounds, the license tax is 

 from 0.20 to 0.70 yen. 



It is reported that the 

 quality of the cultivated 

 Porphyra depends very 

 much on the weather, and 

 is best when frequent rains 

 and falls of snow have ren- 

 dered the shallow water 

 more or less brackish. Too 

 large a proportion of sweet 

 water is unfavorable to the 

 growth of the plant. A 

 century or two ago ama- 

 nori was gathered in large 

 quantities at the mouth of 

 the Sumidagawa, near Asa 

 kusa in Tokyo; but as the 

 river carried down with it a large quantity of gravel, its mouth advanced more and 

 more into the sea, and, the water near Asakusa becoming too fresh, the plant disap- 

 peared. Owing to this circumstance, the 

 above-described mode of cultivation was 

 instituted. The plant has. however, pre- 

 served its former name of Asahusa-nori. 



PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION OF POR- 

 PHYRA. 



While small quantities of amanori are 

 eaten fresh, most of the crop is sun-dried 

 before reaching the consumer. When 

 gathered from the twigs, the seaweeds con- 

 tain sand. mud. and other foreign sub- 

 stances, to remove which they are washed 

 in tanks or barrels of fresh water. After 

 being picked and sorted they are chopped 

 fine with hand knives. The chopped fronds 

 are then spread on small mats of fine bamboo 

 splints and made into thin sheets, a uniform 

 size being attained by means of a frame ap- 

 plied to the mats. The mats are firstplaced 



