'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎135r] (274/738)

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
263
subject there to the payment of tithe. Palestine does not
supply the amount of moisture that mulberry trees require.
Mulberry trees are usually grown from seed and grafted. They
yield a maximum crop of leaves 15-25 years after planting
and live 80-100 years. The ground round the stems must
be dug up two or three times a year. The trees are pollarded
both to make the foliage thicker and to allow of its being
stripped off easily. There is a second crop of leaves which is
used as fodder for sheep and cattle.
The eggs from which the Syrian silk worms are reared
come chiefly from France. About one-fifth are Syrian eggs.
A smaller proportion is imported from Asia Minor (Brussa).
An ounce of eggs (25 grammes) is supposed in Lebanon to
yield 25-30 kilos of (green) cocoons. Ducousso makes the
average yield 22| kilos. Both results are very low compared
with those of France and Italy. Between the hatching of the
eggs and the completion of the cocoons there is a period of 5-6
weeks. The season extends from the beginning of April to the
beginning of June, being earliest in the coast plain and latest
in the hills. The feeding and tending of the silk worms is
often a family occupation in which women and children are
employed. Since 1880 the production of cocoons in Syria has
much increased and it is still increasing. In 1910 and 1911
it reached a total of more than six million kilos (Ducousso)
and in 1915 the quantity was similar (Ruppin). After the
cocoons are completed they are dried. The process used to
take ten weeks in the open air. It can now be accomplished
in a few hours by the use of hot air. It is reckoned that
three kilos of green cocoons (i. e. fresh cocoons) = one kilo of
dry cocoons and that 5 kilos of dry cocoons produce one kilo
of spun silk (Weakley). Another calculation shows that
11^ kilos of green cocoons give one kilo of spun silk (Ducousso).
The return of silk from the cocoons is, in fact, very variable
and depends upon the character of the eggs and of the weather
at the time when the cocoons are formed. The extreme*
layers on the outside and the inside of cocoons are unsuited
for the process of ‘reeling’ (p. 284). The average length of