566 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
the most satisfactory being short lengths of the lead-covered iron ribbon before 
described. They serve the purpose perfectly, they are. sufficiently durable, the 
sponges soon permanently attach, and no suffocation occurs in places where cut- 
tings on the disks would be buried in mud or sand. The spindles are, however, 
about double the cost of the disks, and although the indications are that if care- 
fully handled they will last long enough to mature two crops of sponges, they 
eventually will be destroyed while the disks are practically indestructible. The 
spindles also prevent close packing of the disks and are more troublesome to 
handle, but on the other hand they facilitate the attachment of the cutting, as 
will be hereafter explained. 
PLANTING. 
The method of applying the cutting to the support has undergone gradual 
modification. In the early experiments with various insulated wires, when the 
sponge did not form organic attachment, the pieces were bound against the sup- 
porting line with short pieces of aluminum wire thrust through the sponge and 
twisted around the support. It was found that the cuttings were often slow in 
growing around the support and should the binding wires become loose were 
likely to be detached and lost. To obviate this difficulty the expedient was 
adopted of slitting the cutting, placing the two legs of the slit astride of the sup- 
porting wire and binding the several faces in close apposition by means of rubber 
bands or short aluminum wires traversing the two flaps of the cutting and at 
their ends twisted around the supporting wire. Under such conditions the 
slit speedily fused and the cutting became organically intact about the wire. 
Aluminum was employed for binding because its salts in sea water are neither 
rapidly produced nor injurious. 
With the use of lead-covered materials, to which the sponges grow fast, it 
became possible to ‘‘thread” the cuttings on the wire, the use of binding wires 
being unnecessary to hold them in position. To facilitate this operation needles 
(text fig. 3) were made of clock-spring steel, one end being shaped to a sharp 
stiletto point, and the other rolled or folded over to form a socket fitting the end 
of the wire on which the sponges were to be planted. In planting, the needle 
was fitted to the wire and the cutting pierced by the sharp end of the needle and 
pushed onto the wire as one would use an ordinary needle and thread in stringing 
beads. After attaching the ends of the wires to the stakes the cuttings were 
distributed at regular intervals by sliding them along with the hand, their fric- 
tion against the lead usually holding them in place until organic attachment 
occurred. Several mechanical distributers were devised and experimented 
with, but none was very satisfactory. 
In planting on plain disks the cuttings are pierced by short aluminum wires, 
the ends of which are carried through the two holes already described and twisted 
