WILD SILK.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12754, 29 March 1910, Page 4

WILD SILK.

"According to Virgil the ancient ' Chinese combed silk from the trc<?s. And while the ordinary silk is prepared from silkworms fed artificially on mulberry leaves, there is also a "wild silk" obtained from a dwarf oak treo. A description of this "wild silk'^ is given in a recent number of "Cosimos." Under the curious name of "water eel," a certain amount of this 'is sent to the silk manufacturing.cent res of Lyons and Avignon. Some, is ; also sent to America. to be used ill making the stuff known as "radjah. ' Owing to its great toughness this "wild silk" is also used in making the coverings for balloons. Tlie silk is made from a very common variety ol the oak silkworm; which feeds _ on tho leaves of a Swarf wild oak. This tree crows in the hilly districts of the MoNan, Suchwan, and Kweichou. Ihe cocoons are gathered from the trees and hung up in long festoons m a plac© sheltered from the sun. Ihey .are then brought into a room heated by a stove where, they are kept tor about twenty days. At the end of this time the moths emerge, and are allowed to lay their eggs in palm-leaf baskets. Each female lays some sixty eggs, each about ton time as large as that of tho ordinary mulberry silkworm. When the worms are hatched they are taken to the oak woods. They feed there for two- months, and then, spin their cocoons. In another week the silk is gathered again. AtSuchwan a coarse material is made . by spinning the threads from twenty co-. eSonS* together, and a finer one at Kweichou by taking eight' threads.