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National Geographic : 1905 May
Contents
THE FISHERIES OF JAPAN pulp through coarse cloths. The busi ness began about 1760. In the early years the product was sold in bulk, but at present the entire output, for conven ience in handling and using, is in two forms-slender sticks about a foot long, used locally in preparing food-jellies or exported to America and Europe for making culture media in bacteriological work, and square bars 12 to 15 inches long, which are sold largely in Holland for use in clarifying gin. The Japanese name for this product is kanten, mean ing " cold weather," in allusion to the fact that it can be prepared only during winter, as a low temperature is neces sary for the solidification of the jelly. Five hundred establishments are de voted to the manufacture of kanten, and the output in 1902 was 3,000,000 pounds, valued at $750,000. The identical alga from which the Japanese make their kanten abounds on our own coasts, but not a piece of it is now utilized. EDIBLE SEAWEEDS One other seaweed must be referred to, because the supply comes almost entirely from planted grounds, and in the culti vation of marine vegetables the Japanese stand alone. In all parts of the world there occurs a red alga known to British and Americans as laver, which was for merly a popular food in the British Isles and sparingly eaten in the United States. From a very remote period the Japanese have utilized this plant, and for centu ries-just how long is not known-have carried on an ingenious form of cultiva tion. In the fall arrangements for the seaweed crop are made by sinking into the muddy bottoms of bays numerous bundles of brush or bamboo. These bundles, which are prepared on shore and taken to the grounds at low tide, are planted in regular lines, deep holes being made for them by means of an elongated conical wooden frame, with handles, whichis forced into the mud by the weight of the operator. The brush intercepts and affords attachment for the seaweed spores, which grow so rapidly that by January the plants have attained their full size and the cutting of the crop be gins. The plants die about the time of the vernal equinox, and the active busi ness is at a standstill until the ensuing autumn. The best grounds for the cul tivation of laver are in Tokyo Bay and are leased by the government. In 1901 the area planted with brush was 951 acres, and the value of the crop was over $148,000, or $156 an acre. In 1903 the same area yielded $300,000, or over $310 an acre. The total area of cultivated grounds in the whole of Japan is about 2,300 acres, and the value of the seaweed grown thereon is $400,000 to $500,000. About 3,500 families are engaged in this form of aquiculture. Small quantities of the laver are eaten fresh, but most of it is sun-dried before it reaches the con sumer. The weeds are washed, picked, sorted, and then chopped fine by hand, and the wet, chopped pieces are spread on small bamboo mats and pressed by hand into thin sheets, the mats being placed on inclined frames in the open air. When drying is complete the sheets are stripped from the mats, piled and pressed, and tied in small bundles for market. This product has numerous culinary uses and is found in every Japanese kitchen. GETTING SALT FROM THE SEA An important industryin some parts of Japan, more particularly in the southern districts, is the extraction of salt from sea water, which I may be allowed to mention in connection with the fisheries. The output of mineral salt in Japan is insignificant, and the people depend al most entirely on the sea for their supply of this indispensable article. There are many thousand salt fields under cultiva tion, and over 1oo,ooo people are en gaged in this occupation. On the shores of the beautiful Inland Sea and on the much indented, picturesque coast of Sat- 219
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