The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-09
CATERERS or SEA MOSS.
Il PROFETABLE IND USTRY OF THE
MASSA HUSEITS SHORE.


TURNS for the sskIossers" During the
Short Season.
The family name is hard to trace
unless one has studied the genealosy OF
such things Moss" is what the moss
ers themselves call 1t. TO any observer
1t is obviously sea moss, as 1t grows in
the ocean, but the most distinguished
encyclopedia authority has no such
heading or subheading as sea moss
After going through pages of moses i'm
vain, 1t appears to the patient student
that Iceland moss is lichen, but even
the pages of lichene fail to produce the
specimen in question.
1t occurs to the niiddle-aged gentle
man that the real name is carregeen,
or Irish moss, and it is located in the
eeaWeed family, being more closely al
lied to animals than to MOSES "Chon-
drus crispus'' is the scientific name,
and all the others are no more appro-
PIRATE than "Scttuate' would be, for at
Scituate and Plymouth great quantl-
years ago blanc-mange was not only a
common article of diet, but also took
the place of ice cream at evening par
ties and church sociables. In many
cupboards there are to-day the quaint,
haring g0blets which were made for
blanc mango glasses and have outliVed
their usefulness. Irish moss was a
marketable article in those days, but
messing was not big industry and the
product Of the South shore rocks was
probably not tenth of what it is to-
day.
Irish moss has been put to a new use
within recent years and instead of be-
ing gathered for food it is now gath
cred for drink This information came
from silent man who was ral1ing over
the drying moss ON the beach at Ply
mouth.
us this the kind of moss they make
blanc-mange Off"
yes"
Is 1t ready to be cooked when you
get through with it?"
Yes"
isn't it hard to get enough for the
people Of this country to eat?"
mo We would starve to death on
what is sold for food
What is 1t sold for, then
For beer"
rs that so Do the breweries use 1t
instead Of hops?"
NO; for purifying the beer"
This was a lew light. The pictur-
esque rows of tubs, mounds and patch
es the patient drying and washing and
bleaching were then all for beer.
The mosses requires of nature two
things, submerged rocks for the moss
to grow on and a clean sandy beach
for 1t to dry on. The Scituate cliffs are
famous for the seas that beat against
them, eating them away and in the last
great storm cutting out a new harbor
behind them. There are four of these
cliffs and at the base of each is rough
pile of boulders which have been
washed out of the sand and gravel and
become sea tered In water deep enough
to suit the moss. South Of Plymouth
and at White Horse beach, where the
moss is also gathered, the same sort of
eating away of the hills has been going
on, and the bottom along shore is
SLIeWH WIFI IDChS, Wllll6 DELWH Glb Tue
cliffs and rocky promontorles the
washed-out sand has lodged and
formed the beaches needed for curing
the moss.
The mosser'e outfit begins with a
dory and a fine iron rake with a slen-
der wooden handle twelve or fifteen
feet long. He rows out to the rocks on
the ebb tide when the water is smooth
enough so that he can see the bottom
clearly. The moss Is very dark green
and looks black in the deep water, COM
pleteIy covering the rock upon which it
grows The mosser reaches down with
his rake and gets Its teeth filled with
the stunted plants. which grow only
three or four inches high. Zach rake
full is dumped right before him In the
widest part of the dory, and on the
flood tide when the water gets too deep
for further work, the mosser rows back
to shore. The great black heap of moss
covers up his legs and rises a foot or
more above the sides of the boat. In
deep spots it Is possible to work only
short time before and after dead low
water. but in other places the mosser
can rake on three hours ebb and three
hours rise, giving him six hours to a
tide
After the moss has been gathered a
new crop will grow in a few weeks, so
the mosser goes repeatedly over the
same ground and learns the bottom so
thoroughly that he can sometimes work
on the night tides when the water is
smooth
While a man can gather five dollars
and even ten dollars worth of moss on
q fair day, there are many days when
he can gather none at all. stormy
weather means a setback, not only i'm
gathering, but also in curing the moss,
and in any weather there Is also danger
from q disease like rust that gets into
the moss and renders it unmarketable.
When the mosser comes In with his
loaded dory he leaves it af1oat while he
refreshes the inner man, or, in plain
English. eats a square meal. Then he
works at other things till the tide Ia
high, when he can easily pitch the
moss ashore and spread 1t out on the
sand above high water mark. dory
load spread out like hay will make a |
patch the size of good-sized room.
1t looks almost black at first, but as 1t |
lies in the sun, ralted over day after !
Gay, IL assumes green, brown ana red /
dish ttnts. After washing, however, 1t |
becomes uniformly yellow, with a sort |
of translucent appearance.
Under some conditions the moss can
be cured in ten days and at other times |
h.l