

MANURIAL VALUE OF ASHES, ' -MUCKS, ETC. 79 



SEAWEED AS CATTLE FOOD. 



While their chief value is as a manure, some varieties of sea- 

 weeds are used as food and on some islands near the coast, sheep 

 subsist largely upon them during the winter months. 



Mr. H. A. Long of Roque Bluff has for manv years been a 

 successful grower of sheep on one of the islands of the Maine 

 ■coast. During the present winter, agents for the Maine State 

 Society for the Protection of Animals investigated the conditions 

 under which the island sheep are kept. Three years ago Mr. 

 Long sent samples of the kinds of rock weeds eaten by the sheep 

 to the Station for analysis. Because of this and the investiga- 

 tion of the society above named, he recently wrote as follows : 



"Are the elements found in the seaweed capable of sustaining 

 life without any other food? We know that our sheep eat it in 

 the winter and practically live on it for six or seven months in 

 the year, and if it will keep them fat and strong-, why is it that 

 Ave must house our sheep and feed them hay and grain as we are 

 told the law requires us to do? My cows will go to the shore 

 nearly every day and eat some of the rockweed from the rocks, 

 and I have never seen any hurt to them, or odor in milk. If 

 possible I wish to have made plain to me the value of a pound of 

 seaweed or rockweed, compared with a pound of good hay fed 

 to a sheep or cow." 



As the same question is of importance and interest to many in 

 the state, the chief points given in the answer to Mr. Long are 

 here presented : 



The sample sent to the Station by Mr. Long - was a mixture of 

 several species of rockweed. They were separated into two lots 

 and analyzed as two samples. The sample called rockweed con- 

 sisted chiefly of two species of flat-stemmed rockweed, Fucus 

 vesiculosis and Fucus evancsccns The other sample was sea 

 lettuce. In the following table there is given the analyses of 

 these samples, and for the purpose of comparison, there is also 

 given the average analysis of a few common cattle and sheep 

 fodders. 



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