190 FLAX, SILK 



now increasing attention is being devoted to its cultivation 

 for fibre. In the south of Ontario hundreds of tons have 

 already been produced, and Quebec and British Columbia have 

 shown that they can grow it successfully. 



Egypt for many years has devoted her chief attention to 

 cotton, but since the war she has begun to grow more flax, 

 and now has many acres under this crop. 



Kenya Colony produces good fibre, especially in the high- 

 lands, at Lumbwa, 



In the Commonwealth of Australia, Victoria is the chief 

 flax-growing state at present. 



Linseed or Flaxseed. Canada and India supply us with most 

 of our linseed, though we also buy large quantities from the 

 Argentine and from Russia. 



Silk. More than 2,000 years before the birth of Christ, 

 silkworms, we are told, were reared for their silk in China, 

 but it was not until the sixth century A.D. that silkworms 

 were brought to Europe. In the beginning of that century 

 two Persian monks, travelling westwards, concealed some 

 eggs in the hollow of a cane, and brought them to Constan- 

 tinople. From this small beginning the wonderful modern 

 silk industry of Southern Europe has come into existence. 



Within the empire our interest centres at present in India. 

 At Changa Manga, in the Punjab, stands a great mulberry 

 forest, and in the heart of this forest is a silk camp at which 

 many workers and students are engaged in rearing silkworms. 

 The forest, we are told, was planted by accident. A plantation 

 of Shisham trees was being made, but the canal waters 

 brought down from the Himalayas great quantities of mul- 

 berry seeds, which sprouted and grew, and, eventually, ousted 

 the original plants, so that in course of time there stood 

 a glorious mulberry forest. 



At first, it was only valued because its wood made good 

 fuel, but this fuel was found to be so valuable that other 

 forests were planted, so that to-day in the Punjab there are 

 quantities of mulberry trees the leaves of which are now being 



