The Utilization of Seaweeds in the United States

With seaweed resources certainly not inferior to those of Japan or any other country, and probably much superior, the United States may be. said practically to ignore these valuable products except at a few points on its extensive coast. Statistics recently gathered give the paltry sum of $35,000 as the value of the marine algre prepared in the United States in one year. The business is practically restricted to Massachusetts, and is addressed to a single species, the "Irish moss" {('hondrux crin- pus). Considerable quantities of seaweeds are used as fertilizer on farms adjacent to the coast, but this is not a commercial enterprise. In Monterey and Santa Barbara counties, Cal., the Chinese fishermen dry certain algse for food, medicine, and fertilizer; in 1899 the quantity prepared was 35,K24 pounds, valued at $896. There is undoubtedly a good opportunity to develop the seaweed industry of every section of the United States coasts, and to establish a profitable trade in the various species and preparations of marine alga? along the new lines indicated in the foregoing paper on the Japanese seaweed industry, as well as by increasing the output of the species already sparingly utilized. To this end the following information and suggestions are offered in regard to some of the useful alga? of the United States.