New-York tribune., 1900-09-09
SEA MOSS HARVESTS.
LITTLE USED FOR BLANC NANCE NOW.
BUT BREWERS WANT 1T.
From The Bangor Industrial Journal.


the quaint, fiaring gOblets which were made for
blanc mango glasses and have outlived their
usefulness. Irish moss was a marketable arti-
Gle in those days, but messing was not big
industry, and the product of the rocks was
probably not tenth of what it is to-day Irish
moss mas peen put to new use within recent
years, and instead of being gathered for food
it is now gathered for drink, This information
came from silent man who was rakng over
the drying moss the beach,
rs this the kind of moss they make blanc
mango aTg OFF,
rs it ready to be cooked when you get through
with it?"
.,, Isn't it hard to get enough for the people of
No. We would starve to death on what ia
sold for food?'
What is it sold for then?'
rs that so? Do the breweries use it instead
of hops?"
No; for purifying the beer"
This was new light The picturesque rows
of tubs, mounds and patches, the patient drying
and washing and bleaching were, then, all for
beer
The mosser requires of Nature two things,
submerged rocks for the moss to grow and
a clean, sandy beach for it to dry on His out
ht begins with a dory and fine iron rake with
a slender wooden handle u or 10 feet long.
He rows out to the rocks on the ebb tide when
the water is smooth enough that he can see
the bottom clearly. The is very dark
green and looks black in the deep water, COM
pletely covering the rock which it grows.
The mosser reaches down with his rake and
gets its teeth filled with the stunted plants,
Each rakeful is dumped right before him in the
widest part of the dory, and on flood tide when
' e go & setS 700 ueep LOT Iurther 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 a 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 few weeks. so the mosser
| he md and
| learns the bottom thoroughly that he
sometimes work on the night tides when the
water is smooth. While a man can gather So
| and even $40 worth of moss a fair day, there
| are many days when he can gather none at all.
| Stormy weather means a setback not only in
| gathering, but also in curing the moss, and in
any weather there is also danger from disease
like rust that gets into the moss and renders it
unmarketable.
| When the mosser comes in with his loaded
| dOry he leaves ii afiOat while he TefresheS the
| inner man, or in plain English, eats a square
meal Then he works at other things until the
! tide is high, when he can easily pitch the moss
ashore and spread it out the sand above
| high water mark. doryload spread out like
| hay will make a patch the size of good sized
room. 1t looks almost black at first, but it
lies in the sun, raked day after day, it as
| sumes green, brown and reddish tints After
| washing, however. it becomes uniformly yellow,
| with sort of translucent appearance. Under
some conditions the moss can be cured in ten
| days and at other times the process may Oc-
| cupy three or four weeks Each moSSer has
near his cottage or shanty a lot of patches,
whose varying cOors show the different stages
| or the process. AT some stages is likely
| seriously delay the curing process that at
| night the moss is heaped up like haycOcks and
covered with sailcloth.
! After it is dried it is thoroughly washed, and
| then dried again. The washing is done in great
| tubs made of hogsheads, which are bought for
| 81 apiece and sawed in two. These tubs
! lined along the beach at high water mark and
! filled with moss from one side and water from
! the other, the water being scoOped up at high
| tide by means of small barrels with handles TO
| them. Just like clothes, the is SouZled and
scrubbed and rinsed until it glistens in the sun
| light, amber colored and is again spread upon
| the clean sand. Ordinary wooden hay rakeS are
used to turn the caring moss, and the work is
done by men, women and children whose
| bare feet are tanned and wholesome looking
| During the many rakingS stones, shells, bits OF
ordinary seaweed or infected moss picked
out. Then, when it is cured, the moss is stored
| in large sheds like hay barns.
| A few years ago moss brought cents pound
and proved a bonanza but to-day its gathering
is only fairly profitable at half that price. If
man pulls two barrels two hundred pounds.
| in half day, that sounds like good business at
| 81 but the moss must vet be cured and the
stormy days accounted for. Stin there is one
mana surfnan in the winter-who has the
summer season, which lasts generally during the
| three summer months. At the end of the
| the buyers for the breweries around and
make their bargains with the mGssers, who must
then barrel their product and ship il to Boston.
! The slowing of hundred pounds of dry.
! Springy carragreen in ordinary -four barrel
| is about the hardest work that the mosser has
| to do. In the moss is shipped in
bales hut the buyers prefer to have it barreIled
and allow % cents a hundred pounds for that
purpose.