SPONGE CULTURE. 607 
of 216 specimens were planted; lack of protection against the fishermen here 
obliged Fogarty also to abandon his attempts. The result of his observations, 
however, was found sufficiently conclusive for Rathbun to demand that special 
laws be promulgated by Florida for the protection of future undertakings in 
sponge culture. : 
In 1896 there appeared a report by Allen, director of the Laboratory of Ply- 
mouth. This report was made at the request of the colonial office of Great 
Britain with the desire of introducing sponge culture in the Bahamas. We find 
in this report, in addition to accounts of the experiments of Schmidt and Buccich, 
and of Fogarty, information, though not detailed, on experiments made in Flor- 
ida by Benedict. The latter divided the sponges under water; he wanted simply 
to prove that cuttings attached to favorable localities grew rapidly. The fisher- 
men were greatly opposed to these experiments, fearing that they might be con- 
ducive to the creation of monopolies which would deprive them of their means 
of livelihood. 
In 1889-90 Ralph Monroe likewise experimented in Biscayne Bay at a point 
where the most varied conditions existed. He used for supports trunks of white 
wood, about 12 feet in length, provided with a cross-piece at one end so as to 
hinder them from rolling. The cuttings were affixed to these in various manner; 
the method most quickly executed, but far from the best, consisted in making 
use of small pieces of double copper wire which were pushed into the wood by 
means of a special instrument. Galvanized iron can not be used in any form 
whatever, as it corrodes too rapidly; brass wire must likewise be eliminated on 
account of the deleterious action on the sponges of the salts formed by the chem- 
ical action induced. The sponges with which Monroe operated, solely sheeps- 
wool, readily endure being in the open air for several hours, though they die very 
quickly in stagnant water. They were cut on a cutting board with a very thin 
and sharp knife, the pieces being about 1 inch in length. Each whole sponge 
gave an average of 25 cuttings. The cuttings were immersed to depths varying 
from 8 feet to less than 1 foot at a distance of 12 inches apart. It would be 
easy to plant, with the aid of two assistants and a good boat, from 600 to 800 cut- 
tings per day. The sponges, with a few exceptions, survived the operation and 
began to grow well. Later, they were destroyed or lost in various ways; never- 
theless a lot, planted at Elliott’s Key under 4 feet of water, gave at the end of six 
months 75 per cent of living cuttings which had doubled their size. In some of 
the other lots individual sponges were brought to maturity, but the average loss 
was considerable on account of insufficient adherence to the supports, or from 
other causes. The author concludes by saying that satisfactory means of attach- 
ing the cuttings is still to be found; the localities selected should be in bays and 
lagoons sheltered from the high sea, the too rapid currents, and too agitated 
