AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
1871.] 
Gathering Sea-Weed for Manure. 
Those who live inland can hardly appreciate 
the value a shore farmer attaches to a sea-weed 
privilege. Many of the shore farms are natu¬ 
rally sterile, and were not their owners able to 
draw fertilizing ma¬ 
terial of various 
kinds from the sea, 
their cultivation 
would, in many 
cases, be abandon¬ 
ed. Their fertilizers 
are fish, shell-fish of 
various kinds, salt- 
marsh mud, and the 
sea-weeds proper, 
till of which furnish 
valuable plant-food. 
Fish guano and 
cancerine, made 
from king-ciUbs, are 
now articles of com¬ 
merce, and are used 
at great distances 
from the coast; but 
sea-weed is of so 
bulky a nature that 
it is only available 
to those farms that 
are within hauling 
distance of the 
shore. Two very 
distinct things are popularly known as sea-weed. 
First, the sea-w T eeds proper, or algae, those flow- 
erless plants which, having no true root, draw 
their sustenance from the water which sur¬ 
rounds them. These are usually found on rocky 
coasts, and are thrown up by the sea, or are 
torn from the rocks to which they are attached. 
Help and Rock-weed are familiar examples of 
these. Secondly, a flowering plant, Sea-wrack, 
or Eel-grass, which roots in the muddy bottoms 
along the creeks and bays of the coast. This sea¬ 
weed is largely used upon the East End of Long 
Island, and in other localities, and an account of 
the manner of collecting and using it is sent us 
by Mr. S. T. Ferry, 
•of Southold, from 
which we extract as 
follows: The sea¬ 
weed principally 
used on the East 
End, known as Eel- 
grass, is distinguish¬ 
ed into “ Ray sea¬ 
weed” and “Creek 
sea-weed,” or, as 
it is generally call¬ 
ed, “ Creek-mud.” 
Bay Sea - weed 
grows in shallow 
water, upon a sandy 
bottom, and is torn 
up by the roots, 
or, more properly, 
broken off just 
above the roots by 
violent winds, and 
cast upon the shore 
in large quantities. 
It is generally 
hauled to the barn¬ 
yard and hog¬ 
pen, where it absorbs the waste and makes 
a valuable manure. It is also dried, and 
used for littering stables to some extent. Few", 
comparatively, enjoy the benefits of the use of 
bay sea-weed, as only those who control the 
shores or beaches have the privilege of taking 
it away. It is true all may remove it from the 
bed where it grows, but that is a slow and labo¬ 
rious operation, and pays but poorly. 
Cheek Sea-weed grows usually on very 
muddy bottoms, and ripens about the first of 
Fig. 1.— GATHERING SEA-WEED—USING THE TONGS. 
August, when the harvest generally commences, 
although in creeks where landing-places can be 
secured, the anxious ones commence harvesting 
early in July, thereby “killing the goose that 
lays the golden egg,” for the material taken in 
such an immature state not only shrinks badly, 
thereby causing loss, but the roots are weaken¬ 
ed, and the crop inevitably grows smaller each 
year, or, as the farmers say, “it grows thinner.” 
This would seem to be a subject worthy the at¬ 
tention of our State Legislature. Creek sea¬ 
weed is taken by persons in boats, or, more gen¬ 
erally, on flats, as the labor of baling is thereby 
saved. Tiieimplements used are a pair of tongs 
made of two pieces of tough wood, from six to 
eight feet in length, according to the depth of 
water or the size of the person who uses them, 
and riveted at about one third of the distance 
from the ends held in the hand. The tongs are 
333 
thrust into the water wide open, and closed 
upon as much of the weed as possible, when 
two or three twists or turns are made, by which 
the roots are broken, and then sea-weed, mud, 
small eels, round clams, crabs, etc., the more of 
these the better, are all lifted on board. Some 
prefer a large 
amount of mud, 
and such use heavy, 
five-pronged rakes. 
The sea-w r eed is 
piled in large heaps, 
and after heating a 
few weeks is hauled 
directly to the field, 
where it is left in 
small piles until late 
in the autumn or a 
thaw in winter, 
when it is spread 
and alloived to re¬ 
main upon the sur¬ 
face until spring, 
and is then plowed 
under for corn. It 
is almost invariably 
used upon sod 
ground,and if not 
applied too fre¬ 
quently it will com 
monly produce on 
our shore farms as 
good a crop of com 
(for which crop it appears to be the best adapt¬ 
ed) as an equal quantity of barn-yard manure. 
A moderate estimate of the number of loads 
of Creek sea-weed used annually, in the town of 
Southold, can not certainly be less than ten 
thousand two-horse wagon loads. It sells green, 
that is, before it is seasoned or dries up, at fifty 
cents per load, and is worth when upon the 
field, $1.25 to $1.50 a load, according to the dis¬ 
tance hauled. From twelve to sixteen loads is 
the quantity that generally applied to tne acre, 
although a larger quantity may be safely used. 
Clover for Plowing under. —“ An ac- 
quaintance of 
mine,” writes a cor¬ 
respondent in Con¬ 
necticut, “ who has 
greatly improved 
his farm by plowing 
in clover, says he 
would not give any 
thing for the com¬ 
mon small variety 
of red clover for a 
fertilizer—that only 
the large Northern 
variety that grows 
but once in a sea¬ 
son, is of any value 
for that purpose. Is 
he correct?”—We 
think not. In fact, 
we are sure he is 
not. A given quanti¬ 
ty of the ordinary 
early red clover is 
worth as much to 
plow under for ma¬ 
nure as the late va¬ 
riety, and probably 
a little more, as it has more leaves and less woody 
stalk. The late variety grows longer and larger, 
and where clover is grown merely for the pur¬ 
pose of plowing under for manure, it may bo 
better to sow it than the ordinary so-called 
Fig. 2. —GATHERING SEA-WEED—UNLOADING IN SHALLOW WATER. 
