SPONGE-FARMING.

Grey River Argus, 11 June 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

SPONGE-FARMING .

Not even the sponge can escape the efforts of the breeder. There will soon be a stock-farm of sponges on the Florida coast, where a man can go and buy eggs, or young sponges, as he would buy hens' or calves now. Some time ago Dr. H. F. Moore began experiments. Sev^al thousand spongeouttings were pirn xl at these places under a variety of conditions. The chief problem cenfrontin.-; the experimenter in this field is to md some ready means of attaching the cattings to a durable support, capable of resisting the action of salt water and the ravages of marine animals having similar destructive habits, and which, at the same time, will hot have an injurious effect upon the growing sponge. The cuttings live, and their cut surfaces heal without difficulty. About six weeks after Iho plants were made they were examined, and, under favourable conditions, it .was found that about 95 per cent, of the cuttings wero alive, healed, and apparently healthy. In several places where the plants were established exposed to very "strong currents, many of the pieces were torn loose from their supports, and had been washed away.