Seaweed and its Uses. 



317 



The weeds are largely used in the west of Ireland, and a 

 price paid for them far beyond their value as indicated by 

 chemical composition. As a manure for potatoes they are 

 hardly excelled. Along the coast of Cornwall they are 

 successfully used for grass, cereals, and roots, and for apple 

 orchards, spread round each tree. The broccoli, which is 

 cultivated round Penzance in hundreds of acres, knows no 

 other manure. From 10 to 20 tons per acre is the usual 

 quantity applied. They act very rapidly, softening and 

 decomposing in the soil so quickly that their effects are con- 

 fined altogether to the special crop to which they are applied. 



On the French coasts on the littoral of the Channel the 

 collection of seaweed is carried on on an extensive scale. 

 It was officially estimated some years ago at more than 

 2,000,000 cubic yards annually, or in weight about 2,250,000 

 tons. It is collected in various ways, with a drag, by the 

 spade, by a rake with long handle, etc., and loaded into 

 barges, carts, on donkeys, etc. So important is seaweed 

 there considered as a fertilizer, that a work was published 

 specially devoted to the subject* 



The collection of seaweed, by cutting from the roots, 

 forms a considerable source of employment for the poorer 

 classes on the coasts of Brittany. It is only permitted to 

 be carried on from the period of full moon in March to 

 the full moon of April. The collection of the driftweed 

 thrown on the shores is, however, prosecuted all the year 

 round. 



In the Channel Islands the harvesting of the cut weed 

 is carried on at fixed times — at Guernsey from July i/th 

 to August 31st, and at Jersey for 10 days from March 

 loth and June 20th. About 30,000 loads are collected 

 annually at each of the islands. 



* '* Etudes sur les Engrais de Mer," par J. Isidore Pierre. Paris: A. Goin. 



