1910.] Composition of Seaweed and Use as Manure. 461 



the ordinary farm crops. Some is also thrown into the dung 

 mixen. However, it cannot be said to be a very important 

 manure at the present time, and is collected only when other 

 work can be left, the reason probably being that cartage is 

 heavy. A load weighs about a ton, and often requires two 

 horses to get it from the shore; the enormous quantities 

 thrown up by high tides when the wind is from the north 

 or north-east — making a fringe along the high-water mark 

 which may be three or four feet in thickness — sometimes prove 

 more than the market gardeners and farmers on the coast can 

 profitably deal with. 



A considerable amount of seaweed is collected in Scotland, 

 where the right of gathering still sometimes forms part of 

 the covenant with the landlord, and has even been the subject 

 of litigation. It appears to be held in special favour on the 

 south-west coast, where there is a good deal of light soil, and 

 cartage presents no particular difficulties ; indeed, it is 

 perhaps the chief manure used for early potatoes on the Ayr- 

 shire coast, being applied at the rate of 25 to 30 tons per acre 

 in autumn, and then ploughed in. What is gathered in 

 summer is put on top of the "middens " till wanted. Further 

 up the west coast, and also on some of the islands, seaweed is 

 used by the crofters, but it does not appear to be held in so 

 much favour on the east coast, excepting where it can very 

 readily be obtained. 



Seaweed is largely used on the Irish coast and on the 

 French coast; at Mont St. Michel there is a considerable 

 trade in seaweed as manure. It is also of great importance 

 in some of the New England coast districts. 



The Composition of Seaweed. — The composition of sea- 

 weed is largely dependent on that of the sea-water by which 

 it is surrounded, and from which it draws its sustenance, but 

 no systematic investigation from this point of view has yet 

 been made. Nor are there any great number of analyses ori 

 record; except those by Anderson, Hendrick, and Toms few 

 data that bear on the subject have yet been published in this 

 country. 



When the weed is first thrown up it holds mechanically 

 a considerable amount of water, part of which will drain away 

 and part evaporate. Wet weed may contain as much as 80 



