Evening star., 1915-03-10
OPERATING A SPONGE
FARM.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

Inc SclentiHC TeSedICH CoHtiHudiS Sdi :
ried on under the different departments of
the United States government causes fire.
auent changes in industrial methods. One
of the latest of these is in sponge produc-
ton. Formerly il was called sponge fish
ing hereafter it is likely to bc known as
sponge farming. although it is still under
the direction of the bureau of fisheries.
The first man TO operate for CONNER
cial purposes under the new processes de-
yeloped by the bureau is an Engiishman,
living in Florida, who lately established
the first sponge farm or ranch in the
whole world. He purchased small
island. known as Sugar Loaf, where
DIR. Moore had been conducting his
work, on the western coast of Florida,
and made his first planting there less
than four years ago. Now he has
more than half million sponges
growing his ranch. Within the
next ten years this progressive Eng
1ishman expects to establish himself
as the sponge king of the world. and
TO acquire fortune upon American
soil through American aid by utillZ-
ing a great opportunity which Ameri-
cans themselves have strangely over
looked
The sponge production of Florida for
years has ranked next to that of the
used have so depleted the supply that
exhaustion seemed imminent. A few
years ago sponges in Florida were so
plentiful that they could be gathered
by hand by men wading out into shall
low water, sometimes only a few inches
deep. But all of these accessible
sponges have been gathered. and now
the combined operations of the sponge
"hookers. the divers and the sponge
fishing boats threaten materially to
injure the American sponge beds un-
less some means are taken to replen-
ish them Planting sponges in waters
which have already been stripped of
them, or in Isw localities in which
they will thrive. seems to be the most
feasible way of preventing their ex-
tinction.
DR. Moore demonstrated, several years
rgo, that sponges could be propagated
by artificial
I'arlenG:e and Means m e h o s.
Needed fer Ranch. c,anr n,I p fsps
'T -Fa!low water. where the
.--. he protected from their
~ gn.",ies and be readily acces-
~ jme they have grown into
-.l izs It takes considera BILE
r.rr sal capital to establish
...< ct' SUita BILE sponges for
.M...-r ocad must first be secured
.. .a a~s''ra~y methods. three
.,r K attached TO a long pole,
#.... -9~ sponge fishing. water
r, .a-ns}- sponge glass is also re-
H-.j- This is merely a wooden box
0D .rl<et having glass bottom. BY
s7-- erging it and looking through the
$ the sponge fisher is able to see
s-Jcnges at the bottom of water fifty
feet deep. When the sponge is located.
the fisher lowers his hook to the
sponge bed. guided by the glass. which
he still holds in his left hand.
Care must be taken to hook the
sponge with as little mutilation as pos
sible. Sometimes it is impossible to
detach the entire sponge and merely
the top comes off. new sponge then
grows upon the old base. This fact
first indicated to the scientist the pos
sibility of growing new sponges from
planted fragments.
Divers are employed in sponge gath
ering along the Florida coast, although
not in such numbers as in the Mediter-
ranean and Bahama sponge fisheries.
The employment Of nude divers is for
hidden by the state laws of Florida, and
the divers boats and apparatus are
difficult and expensive to handle, al
though they annually bring in large
haryests of sponges.
After II became certain that new
sponges could be grown from pieces of
proper bases for their cultivation
Sponges do not grow in the sand. They
require a firm foundation, such as rock
or coral reef. They are, therefore,
most likely to be found where con-
tinual current washes away the sand.
leaving the rock exposed Wooden
stakes and cotton and hemp cordage
were used in the first sponge planting
experiments, but were not stable
enough. durable and economical
method of securing the pieces of
sponge in the water is to use concrete
disks about ten inches in diameter. to
which the bit of sponge is attached by
a!lr7inum wire. Copper wire was used
at first but the chemical action of the
SEA water is strong enough to corrode
ard mpletely to destroy copper wire
sixteenth of an inch thick within
ezT.
TWO kinds of disks have been designed
80 far. The plain ones have two holes