238 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



experiments bear out this point. In as short a time as one year, under favorable 

 conditions, the cuttings will attain a marketable size, and certainly within sixteen or 

 eighteen months the harvesting of relatively large sponges may be depended on. 

 These results are in marked contrast to those in the Adriatic, where the rate of 

 growth was so exceedingly slow as to seriously militate against the feasibility of 

 sponge propagation in those waters. The person in charge of the experiments states 

 that "the clippings grow two or three times their original size during the first year," 

 and that, "although some pieces will grow to a considerable size in five years, it will 

 require seven years to raise completely matured sponges which are fit to become an 

 article of merchandise." A writer who reviewed the experiments very pertinently 

 remarked: 



The profitableness of sponge-culture would be far more evident if tbere was not such a long 

 interval between planting and harvesting; in other words, if the sponges would grow more rapidly. 

 This was certainly looked for when the enterprise was started; but it is dispiriting to have to wait 

 for your crop for seven long years 



The attitude of the State toward the project to increase the supply of sponges 

 by artificial means must necessarily exert considerable influence on its success. 

 Adequate encouragement and authority should be given by the Common wealth to 

 those desiring to engage in this enterprise, to be supplemented by ample protection 

 from poachers after grounds have been planted. 



Artificial sponge-grounds are susceptible of the same methods of regulation that 

 have proved of value in the case of the oyster. The State might levy a tax, which 

 would defray the expenses incurred in protecting the growers, but if such action is 

 calculated to discourage the business it should not be broached until the industry has 

 been placed on a substantial footing. 



The area of barren bottom which one person may be allowed to appropriate should 

 be limited, so that no monoply will be created and the undertaking of the enterprise 

 by numerous small planters be encouraged. The project is popular with many of the 

 persons already interested in the sponge industry. Some, however, have expressed 

 the fear that the best planting-grounds will fall into the hands of a few persons, who 

 may in time secure control of the industry. The fear also exists among some of the 

 sponge fishermen that extensive planting may deprive them of a livelihood, but there 

 is little or no basis for such apprehension. Sponge-planting will give employment to 

 many additional persons, and probably will indirectly prove of benefit to those who 

 sponge on the natural grounds, by diverting some attention therefrom and permitting 

 a larger growth thereon. 



PROPOSED INTRODUCTION OF MEDITERRANEAN SPONGES. 



While for general purposes there is no better sponge than the Florida shccpswool, 

 some of the foreign sponges, used in surgical practice and in other special branches, 

 are more delicate, and yield a much higher price per pound than any native species. 

 Some of the small Levant toilet sponges bring as much as $50 a pound, and the con- 

 sumption of these high priced sponges in the ITniled States is quite large. 



The possibility of transplanting in our own waters some of the best of the foreign 

 sponges, in order that our own fishermen may reap the benefits of the high prices, 

 opens up a very interesting subject. It has been thought that a very small colony. 

 properly nurtured, would, under favorable conditions, form a nucleus from which a 



