SEAWEED AS MANURE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 28 September 1927, Page 7

SEAWEED AS MANURE

The use of freshly collected and also dried seaweed on all holdings near the sea coast is well worth con sideration, particularly in view of the present-day lack of -farmyard or wellrotted stable manure, states an Eng lish journal. Around the coasts of the United Kingdom seaweed can Do had for next to nothing, apart from the cost of collecting and carting away. Unfortunately, farms at some dis tance from the coast cannot economi cully use wet seaweed, as the cost oi carriage of so bulky a product would render it too expensive in compariswn with other fertilising materials of equal value; but if some arrangement can be made whereby the seaweed can be collected, dried and ground or else burned, at or near the shore, tkus considerably reducing the built without lessening the manorial contents is is then worth bringing inland* Fresh seaweed has a high reputation as a manure. It is used extensively in parts of Ireland; it is specially valued in the Isle of Thanet for lu cerne, market garden, and ordinary farm crops; it is much esteemed in Cornwall and Devon for potatoes, roots and cauliflowers; while the Jersey potato growers use large quantities m the production of their crops, borne kinds of seaweeds contain as much nitrogen as farmyard manure—although in a more slowly acting form —and more potash, but rather less phosphates. For this latter reason a phosphatic fertiliser should be added when seaweed is to be used to replace farmyard manure. It should be put straight on to the land or el&e mixed with dung, or other substance, which will absorb the products of its decomposition, and thus conserve its value.