SILK 



89 



Efforts have been made by the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment to improve the Cypriot race of silkworms. Two 

 races of white colour, the Japanese and the Baghdad, have 

 been separately crossed with the yellow race of Baghdad. 

 These crossings began in 1912-13 and have been continued 

 up to the present. The objects aimed at are to establish 

 a new Cypriot race (a) giving good cocoons of a fine 

 structure and larger in size than the French variety and 

 yielding a maximum quantity of silk ; (b) producing 

 cocoons of a uniform colour and in demand in the Euro- 

 pean market and (c) with these characteristics constant. 



The results obtained so far are promising, but uni- 

 formity of colour has not yet been attained, though it is 

 hoped that, by careful selection, this will become more fixed 

 every year. It may here be mentioned that the famous 

 French cream-coloured race took seventy-five years to 

 become fully established owing to the widespread damage 

 caused by pebrine and, to a lesser extent, by flacherie. 



It has been observed that silkworm eggs locally pro- 

 duced by qualified licensees are decidedly more immune to 

 disease and less affected by adverse atmospheric condi- 

 tions than imported seed. 



The local conditions of sericulture in Cyprus have 

 undergone a change of late years. Formerly Nicosia and 

 Famagusta were the districts where this industry was 

 chiefly carried on ; but latterly whole mulberry groves 

 have been uprooted and replaced by fruit trees which are 

 considered to be more profitable. This was the inevitable 

 result of the ignorant methods under which the silkworm- 

 rearing industry was conducted and the use of bad seed 

 permitted, whereby disease was spread and annual^loss 



