SILK AND COPAL 81 



Experiments made at the estate of the African Plan- 

 tations, Ltd., are said to show that the best fibre is 

 obtained from stalks which have been retted or steeped 

 in water for five days, but it will probably be found that 

 the period required for the operation is dependent to a 

 great extent upon the age of the stalks 1 used. 



The fibre may be prepared by stripping the bark layers 

 from the soaked stalks and beating these upon the surface 

 of the water until the actual bark is removed, when the 

 fibre may be dried in the sun ; being finally picked over 

 to get rid of the small remaining bark particles. 



The plant exhibits some advantages for cultivation 

 over jute, in that it may be cropped twice in one year 

 and treated as a perennial. Collection of the wild growths 

 would be unsatisfactory for the production of the fibre 

 upon a large scale, owing to the time occupied in searching 

 for the plants, but it seems probable that the plant would 

 repay planting, especially if some better method of ex- 

 traction were devised. 



The composition, quality, and commercial value of a 

 large number of fibres obtained from plants indigenous 

 to, or cultivated in, the Gold Coast are discussed in 

 Selected Reports from the Imperial Institute, Part I., 

 " Fibres " (Colonial Reports, Miscellaneous, Cd. 4588, 

 1909), pp. 43, 51, 84, 89, 90, 115. 



SILK. A species of wild silkworm is commonly dis- 

 tributed throughout the forests to the north of Kumassi, 

 and has been identified as Anaphe venata. The silk 

 cocoons of this species and those of Anaphe infracta are 

 used in Nigeria for spinning into yarn for weaving the 

 " Sanyan " cloths of that country, but no use is apparently 

 made of them in Ashanti. The worms live in small 

 colonies, and form their cocoons in a common envelope 

 of silk, from which two or three somewhat tubular pro- 

 cesses project to enable the moths to emerge when the 

 time arrives. The food plant of the silkworm has not 

 been definitely ascertained, but, as the cocoons are found 

 on a large number of herbaceous plants as well as trees, 

 it seems probable that several plants are eaten by it. 

 The quality of the silk is said to be good, and the colour 

 is usually a golden or light brown.* 



COPAL. The tree which produces this resin, often 

 miscalled " gum," which is commercially known as 



* Cf. Bull. Ent. Res., vol. i. (1911), p. 83; Bull. Imp. Inst., vol. viii. 

 (1910), p. 150; vol. xiv. (1916), p. 174; vol. xviii. (1920), p. 319. 

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