New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-21
GATHERING SEAWEED.
Hard Work of HarUesters Along the
blaine Coast.

hardest known In Maine. The the
skin all the time. They eat cold lunches. They
sleep out of doors. They average eighteen hours
work day, says Portland correspondent Of The
Boston Herald
along the eastern shore. which relates how
cifUl farmer always sent his hired men to pull
rockwell when it rained too hard to work out OF
doors" The exact wording is not nice for refined
ears although the idea conveyed requires no ex-
planatory key.
Before the days when cheap commercial fer
tilzers were invented every farmer within four
miles of salt relied upon his spring gather
ing of seaweed for the dressing give his potatoes
early start and for the production of hard and
eIiptical rutabaga turniPs such said to make
sheep laugh and 10 rejoice the heart of every boy
who owns q sharp jacklInife and a healthy appe-
tite.
Every spring more than five thousand tons OF
rockwell are gathered and placed in scows TO be
carried far up the Penobscot and placed in fresh
burrows. while the amount used by nearby farmers
is fully twice much Except where the haul is
. short one, when the product is pulled and taken
away in carts rockweed is collected by professional
harvesters, who come with fat-bottomed scows
and baskets and pull deliver the seaweeds for
a bushel.
The is grounded on a gravelly spot among
rocks at the beginning of ebb tide, between which
time and neap tide two strenuous pull
and carry 900 bushels the scow
Thus it has become practice to build wide and
shoaI boats holding about six hundred bushels.
that q regular crew can load the craft to the
gunwales in two tides. and by catching a few
hours for meals and sleep at the top of the food
they can come empty and depart loaded between
two sunrises
In the early planting season, when the water Is
running down in floods q will float from
Bangor 10 Hampden TO the rockwell beds in eight
or ten hours, no matter which way the wind
blows. In getting back, unless there Is wind
from the south so rs to help the craft along, tho
men must scull all the way, which consumes two
days
Two men who are joint owners of a scow and
who ars anxious to set on in the world
on an average $50 in five days, which Is counted as
good wages.
If while Sowing rockwell upstream against the
tide they also secure orders for boards and
other building material or sawdust for summer
bedding OF stock the advantage OF carrying load
both ways is sr much clear gain, and at times the
carriers may earn much $40 or $50 week.
though the week is always of seven days duration
and frequently includes most OF the night
The prejudice which Eastern Maine farmers have
IN favor of using seaweed a fertilizer for sew
eral crops has become agricultural paradox.
The marine plant itself a PUPPY and dripping
growth that is more than 9S per cent pure water.
Under analysis the ash is mostly plain salt. with
trace Of iodine and just faint indication OF lime
and potash.
Appraised at it's commercial value as plant food
fresh seaweed is not worth more than % cents
cord. though there hundreds Of hard headed
farmers who are anxious 20 purchase all they can
secure for five cents bushel
The for this seeming wastefulness is said
10 be due TO the fact that the moist plants have
most beneficial effect upon the mechanical charac-
ter OF the SOIL the fermenting pods Of the seaweed
warming the land, the salt in the stalks drawing
moisture from their surroundings and the decay Of
the mass leaving mellow cavities underground. in
which the rootIets can roam without difficulty.
1t is very certain that the smoothest and hand
soonest and plumpest potatoes and turnips grown
In Maine raised from placing an abundance OF
fresh seaweed in the at the time OF planting
New rockwell is also of great help TO those who
grow cabbages and cauhhOwer, though it is more
harmful than otherwise when used for corn or
beans.
It is claimed that a handful OF rockweed placed
in the fork of apple tree in June will kill all
the bark lice and other insects. and add the fresh
ness OF youth 10 the rough bark Of aged trees.
In Eastern Maine. where the average rise and
foil Of 10 md bprt9
the temperature of the water is low all through the
year, seaweed Is practically the only marine fer
tilfzer that Is collected. To be sure. there a
few aged and malodOrous musseI beds. where the
broken shells and the clinGy mud indicate there
has been an abundance OF animal life at
previous time, but in the main they composed
OF black humus that has seeped out from peat
bogs and rotting sawdust. which has down
from up-rver mills.
There are no ''horseshoes' in the Maine waters
be washed 70 the shore in windows by easterly
gales. The sea urchns and starishes not album
dant enough 10 be taken into account
The great shoals OF pOrgies which clogged the
weirs and darkened the waters 4 score of years
ago no longer visit the coast. or II they at
all, their numbers are few to be OF small
value.
But the polypod algae grows upon the rocks along
the entire shore front Of Maine, often extending
several miles the banks Of the rivers. 1t grows
In thick and matted masses. and be gathered
almost rapidly a man can pitch hay. In shoal
much Of the growth IS taken up clingtng
the winter ice and carried to sea, though on
steep and stony banks II maintains firm roots and
gives an abundant harvest every year.
Though only l5,0C0 tons are gathered yearly. il
is believed that the seaweed which grows along
the Penobscot River alone amounts TO more than
10000 tons annually.