840 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



11. FRAUDULENT PRACTICES. 



In connection with the sponge trade, several fraudulent practices have grown up, to the great 

 annoyance of honest dealers, and strenuous efforts are now being made to check them. The two 

 most serious are the so-called "liming" and "sanding" processes, which greatly increase the weight 

 of sponges, and, thereby, their cost to the retail buyer. 



The liming of sponges is a bleaching process, and consists in soaking the sponges in ;i solution 

 of lime and sea- water. It was resorted to primarily for the purpose of improving the appearance 

 of the sponges and giving them a lighter and brighter color. The use of the bleaching agent, 

 however, results in great injury to their fibrous structure, and renders the sponges less durable. 

 It has also been observed that a large percentage of the lime is generally left in the sponges from 

 insufficient washing, and this tends to increase their weight to the financial gain of the bleacher. 

 As these facts have become known to the trade and to people generally, the demand for bleached 

 sponges has fallen off considerably, and it is now generally regarded that the liming process is 

 continued partly for dishonest purposes. Our remarks on this subject apply more especially to 

 the Florida sponges, regarding which we have the most definite information ; but almost all the 

 'foreign sponges received at New York, and particularly those imported from Europe, are more 

 thoroughly bleached than our own, and the practice of sanding is as fully understood on the other 

 side of the Atlantic as it is here. 



The liming of Florida sponges is done solely at Key West, as it is said the process has never 

 proved successful at Apalachicola. All the sponges from the latter place have been shipped 

 unbleached to New York, but Key West dealers claim that these same sponges are sometimes sent 

 to them from New York for bleaching. 



The sanding process consists in mixing with the sponges before packing a certain quantity of 

 fine sand, which increases their weight from 25 to even 100 per cent., according to the amount used. 

 Sponges are so exceedingly light in themselves and so open in texture that a large quantity of sand 

 can be easily added without making any appreciable difference in their appearance ; in fact, the 

 quantity of sand required to double the weight of a sponge is so small that its presence in the 

 sponge might almost seem to be a natural result of the curing of sponges on the beaches. The 

 method of preparing sponges in Florida does not, however, require that any appreciable amount of 

 sand should be left in them, and the handling to which sponges are subjected after removal from 

 the beaches precludes their containing much sand unless it has been put there for unfair purposes. 

 The sanding of sponges originated in Europe, and the process has only recently been introduced 

 into this country. 



The following editorial from the " Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter," of New York, for April 21, 

 1880, gives a graphic description of these evils : 



"Reports come to us from sources which we deem authentic beyond question that within 

 the past week or ten days there have been shipments from Cedar Keys to Key West, Florida, of 

 25 barrels of-quick-sand for the use of packers of sponges, one or two of whom are working with 

 closed doors. To affirm from these reports that the packers in question were sanding their 

 sponges would not perhaps be justifiable, yet the rest of the trade are disposed to regard that as 

 a fact, and the reports certainly admit of that construction. The sponge business is in a position 

 to be put upon a fair square footing, more readily than any other branch of trade we know of. 

 The number of houses engaged in the trade is not large, and they have the means of readily form- 

 ing a combination for the purpose of establishing uniform and honest methods in their business 

 instead of retaining the contradictory, misleading, and senseless practices which now prevail, 



