The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

412

It was a grand example of cooperation and teamwork

that also cast its light into national and international

scientific collaboration.

The members of the team that worked at the Na-

tional Agronomic Station and the College of Agricul-

ture in Moca include the following: Dr. A. E. Barthe,

agronomist, one of the veterans of the Department

of Agriculture, who replaced Dr. E. Razeto; Dr. E.

Balzarotti, chemist; Dr. M. Palacios, zootechnical

veterinarian; Dr. G. Russo, entomologist; Mrs. F. de

Cervantes, English professor; and many others. There

was also an expert staff working in the facilities and of-

fices, including F. O’Diot, teacher of crop cultivation;

J. Braun, manager of the Botanical Garden; J. Santos

M., Chemistry assistant; L. Quiñones, Entomology as-

sistant; E. Moltoni, ornithologist; R. Perdomo, agricul-

ture intern; J. Sochting, supervisor; G. Sanz, steward of

the College; P. A. Rojas and A. de Js. Brache, typists; J.

Caballero, mechanical electrician; and C. Rosis, driver.

A group of local and foreign collaborating scientists worked at continuing tasks; these include the presbyter

Miguel Fuertes y Lorens, Rafael Moscoso, Erik Ekman, Rafael A. Toro, and Romualdo González Fragoso.

Others collaborated in a variety of ways or on very specific projects: P. Radaelli, Rolando Martínez, the agron-

omist J. P. Duarte M., Andrés González, César A. Campos, Thomas Erickson, Mario E. Espaillat, Horacio A.

Read, Pedro A. Rojas, and Fabio A. Rojas, all of whom Ciferri mentions in the notes of acknowledgment that

he customarily included in his reports.

Publications

The

Revista de Agricultura

, published by the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Immigration, was the

most important organ of popularization and dissemination in the country. Publicized through its pages

were plans, projects, advertisements, and important notifications, such as the availability of farm imple-

ments, seeds, nursery plants, etc. There were also recommendations for dealing with plagues or diseases

affecting crops or livestock throughout the national territory. Articles from other latitudes, as well, were

reproduced in

Revista

’s pages, and farmers could read about a variety of subjects that might prove of inter-

est to them. These articles, however, formed a sort of mosaic or potpourri of agricultural information from

regions that might be very different from the tropics; the news could very well be copied from agricultural

services in Argentina or in the USA.

One of the earliest repercussions of the work of Ciferri and his scientific team of collaborators was the

change in agricultural publications. They were now refocused to support the Republic’s national plan for

agricultural development and to discuss the immediate problems that must be faced. When the Agronomic

Station and the College of Agriculture were established in Haina in 1925, the Secretariat of Agriculture and

Immigration announced the suspension until further notice of the

Revista de Agricultura

and the introduction

of the

Boletines Técnicos

(Technical Bulletins) of the school and station in Haina, now ready to function “in

every aspect.” Once the move to Moca was made, the station’s publication service included not only the bul-

letins but also educational fliers and posters to popularize the message. There were also logs, reports, studies,

and papers that appeared in publications—perhaps in the

Boletín

, perhaps in the form of books or pamphlets.

The

Revista de Agricultura

, in its editorial dated June 1925, stated:

Agricultural landscape

of the Dominican

Republic. A rice field

during the rainy

weather.

Savino, donated by the

author

Dr. Raffaele Ciferri in

his laboratory at the

National Agronomical

Station. Moca,

Espaillat province,

around 1927.

Nación