428 / 540
427
ing the terrain of the Agricultural Experimental Station (in Haina)
under the direction of the Department of Agriculture and Immi-
gration, and the second allocates US$47,400 to finish construction
and acquire electrical equipment for said Station in Haina.
11
Walter Cordero, “Medioambiente. Depredación ambiental y
preocupación conservacionista en República Dominicana,”
Xin-
esquema
, no. 5 (October 2004): 36.
12
Ibid
. Walter Cordero quotes Consuelo González de Peynado:
“Our countryside is devastated, deprived every day of its trees,
destined to a major consumption of charcoal. Planting is a neces-
sity, so that there will be some compensation, taking advantage
of the cultivation of crops to provide salutary lessons for the ben-
efit of the student.”
13
Ibid.
, 36–37.
14
The Cuban institution was founded in 1904 and was the first
of its type in Latin America; it is known today as the Instituto de
Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical Alejan-
dro de Humboldt (Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Funda-
mental Research in Tropical Agriculture).
15
Quoted in Reinaldo Funes Monzote,
Despertar del asociacionis-
mo científico en Cuba. 1876–1920
(Havana: Centro de Investigación
y Desarrollo de la Cultura Cubana Juan Marinello, 2005), 231–
232.
16
Despite being categorized as a government employee, it was
not until 1928, three years after his arrival, that an executive or-
der authorized him to establish legal residence in the Domini-
can Republic. Decree No. 1009, September 19, 1928.
Colección de
Leyes, Decretos y Resoluciones de los Poderes Legislativo y Ejecutivo de
la República. Año 1928
(Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Succes-
sors, 1929), 289–290.
17
José de Jesús Jiménez,
Colectores de plantas de la Hispaniola
(San-
tiago: UCMM, 1985), 72–76.
18
Colección de Leyes, Decretos y Resoluciones,
Año 1926, 45–46; and
Año 1927, 76–77.
19
Raffaele Ciferri,
Segundo informe anual de la Estación Nacional
Agronómica de Moca, 1926
(Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Suc-
cessors, 1927), 4.
20
Revista de Agricultura
19, no. 8 (June 1925), 247.
21
Ibid.
,
Revista
, editorial.
22
Ciferri’s bibliography is very large and is not included in this
work; see a brief Dominican bibliography of Ciferri in J. de J.
Jiménez,
Colectores
, 51–54.
23
G. Russo, “Informe de la sección de Entomología,” in R. Ci-
ferri, “Informe de la Estación Nacional Agronómica y Colegio de
Agricultura de Moca,” in
Memoria que el señor Rafael A. Espaillat,
vol. 2,
Secretario de Estado de Agricultura e Inmigración, presenta al
Señor Presidente de la República
(Santo Domingo: Imprenta J. R.
Vda. García, Sucesores, 1927), 244.
24
Some of the duplicates were sent to the Museum of Natu-
ral Sciences in Milan, where Professor E. Moltoni, ornithologi-
cal specialist, made scientific determinations of many common
names of the stuffed birds. Compare R. Ciferri,
Segundo informe
, 4.
25
In 1926 several species of fungi were sent for study to the Cen-
traalbureau voor Schimmelcultures in Baarn (Netherlands),
Ibid.
26
R. Ciferri, “Informe,” in
Memoria
, vol. 2, 24–30.
27
Ibid
., 33, 40–41.
28
Ibid.,
250–251.
29
Ibid
., 23.
30
See Raffaele Ciferri,
Micoflora domingensis
(Santo Domingo:
Secretariat of State for Agriculture and Immigration, 1929);
Myco-
flora domingensis integrata
(Pavia: Istituto Botanico della Universi-
ta, 1961).
31
Compare Raffaele Ciferri,
Informe sobre la producción del Cacao
en la República Dominicana
(Santo Domingo: Secretariat of State
for Agriculture and Immigration, 1928), 37–38.
32
R. Ciferri,
Segundo informe
, 12–13.
33
To give a few examples, here are some of the periodicals re-
ceived:
Abstracts of Bacteriology
,
American Journal of Botany, Archivo
Botánico, Anales Institute Pasteur, Anales Parasitologie, Anales Societé
Nationale Botanique, Bulletin C. N. Societé de Biologie, Bulletin Insti-
tute Pasteur, Bulletin Societé de Pathologie Exotique, Bulletino della
Societé Entomologica Italiana, Facts About Sugar, Gordian, Journal
of Agricultural Research, Mycology, Phytopatholgy, Review of Applied
Mycology, Revista de Agricultura Tropical, Soil Sciences
, and dozens
of additional titles originating in Europe and America.
34
The graduates were Juan Pablo Duarte M., Temístocles Her-
rera B., Manuel A. Moya, Henry López Penha, José Larrauri H.,
Juan B. Díaz R., Andrés González, César A. Campos, Carlos Báez
L., Rafael Perdomo M., Víctor M. Gutiérrez.
Memoria correspon-
diente al año 1927 que al Ciudadano Presidente de la República pre-
senta el Sr. Rafael A. Espaillat, Secretario de Estado de Agricultura e
Inmigración
, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Successors,
1928), 19.
35
Ibid.
, vol. 1, 26.
36
Ibid
.
37
On this point, his books about medieval Italian numismatics
deal with subject matter far removed from biology to which Ci-
ferri made significant contributions.
38
See R. Ciferri’s review of both publications in
Archeion: Archiv-
io di Storia della Scienza
12, no. 1 (January–March 1930): 417–419.
39
R. Ciferri, “Studio Geobotánico dell’Isola Hispaniola (Antil-
le),” in
Atti Istituto Botanico “Giovani Briosi
,
”
Series 4, vol. 8
(Pavia:
University of Pavia, 1936), 1–336. Includes a map of the island’s
vegetation. Cited by Chardón,
Viajes y naturaleza
(Caracas: Edito-
rial Sucre, 1941), 275.
40
Carlos E. Chardón,
Viajes y naturaleza
, 113.
41
Ibid.
, 280.
42
“El éxito de la reforma de la Escuela Nacional de Agricultura,”
Revista de Agricultura y Comercio
25, no. 59 (August 1934): 1323.
43
Cf. Edwin Croes Hernández, “La depresión económica ini-
cial,” in
Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano
, vol. 5, ed. Rob-
erto Cassá (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Histo-
ria, 2014), 166–168. The company mentioned above was part of
the dual agrarian policy propelled from the start by the Trujillo
regime in an attempt to use foreign capital to modernize com-
mercial agriculture. In this case, La Yuquera was a subsidiary of
the American Corn Company. The experiment soon failed as a
consequence of the worldwide Great Depression.
44
The so-called Trujillo Plan, elaborated in the early 1940s, con-
sisted of a long-term comprehensive economic development pro-
gram that would become the basis for the exploitation of natural
resources including mining and agriculture, as well as the consol-
idation of industrial development under the tyranny of Trujillo.
Dr. Carlos E. Chardón, who directed a team made up of various
national and international scientists, was commissioned in 1937
to do the baseline study for the Plan. Two years later, Chardón
submitted a report that circulated sparingly in mimeographed
form. The first edition in book form saw the light of day in 1976,
fifteen years after the tyrant’s execution. See Carlos E. Chardón,
Reconocimiento de los recursos naturales de la República Dominicana:
Informe presentado al Presidente de la República Dominicana, Gener-
alísimo Doctor Rafael L. Trujillo
(Santo Domingo: Sociedad Do-
minicana de Bibliófilos, 1976).
DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC