GETTING SILK FROM AFRICA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIII, Issue 8, 28 July 1916, Page 8

GETTING SILK FROM AFRICA.

NEW SOURCE OF SUPPLY. Attention was recently ealied by the president of tbe Silk Association to the possibilities of the wild silk of the anaphe silkworm found in German East Africa. As a matter of fact the anaphe silkworm occuiis in many parts of East, West and South Africa, and samples of the silk from Uganda were examined some years ago at the Imperial Institute which introduced the product to the notice of leading silk manufacturers in this country. At that time it was doubtful whether the price British manufacturers could offer would pay the cost of collection of the scattered nest-, of the cocoru s. The Imperial Institute accordingly •• ingested that the Govofnment entomologist in Uganda should investigate the possibilities of '"domesticating" thu wild anaphe and cultivating it in plantations of the trees on which it feeds, so as to reduce the cost. This has now been found quite practicable. A new and cheap raw material for the spun silk industry would be of such importance that it is to be hoped that energy and capita! will be forthcoming for the development of this industry in Uganda, whence a certain •mount of the silk is alreadv being oxported, and also in other British African colonies.