The fibre is separated by means of a wooden implement locally called "melidjia." This consists of a wooden trough placed on two legs which are fixed in the ground. A wedge-shaped piece of wood which is hinged to the trough at one end is used as the beater. The hemp stalks, after the butts are cut off, are placed in the trough and the beater worked up and down so as to split the stalks and lay bare the fibre. The average production of fibre per scala is 60 to 80 okes, but where conditions are all favourable it may reach 160 to 200 okes and the seed yield may be anything from 80 to 200 okes per scala. _Silk_ The silkworm (_Bombyx mori_) finds in Cyprus a climate exceptionally favourable to its development, and Cyprus silks have been famous for their quality throughout the middle ages and as far back as the sixth century A.D., when Greek monks first introduced silkworms from China. In the fateful year 1845, when the disease pebrine nearly destroyed the silk industry of Europe, the anxious search for healthy silkworm eggs that then ensued led Arabs from Syria to visit Cyprus and buy large quantities of silk cocoons from which they raised and exported the eggs. At that time, therefore, it is evident that Cypriot moths were well thought of. Pebrine soon reached Cyprus and almost brought the Island breed to an end. Thanks, however, to the Pasteur system, whereby pebrine and other silkworm diseases have been brought under complete control, the industry both here and elsewhere was not only saved but has been considerably developed. Writing in 1896 Mr. P. Gennadius, late Director of Agriculture, Cyprus, stated that the local production of silkworm eggs was so small that it could not be taken into consideration, and from the figures then given the total average annual production at that time is estimated to have been 35,000 okes of dry cocoons. This represented an average yield of only 3-1/2 okes of dry cocoons, equal to 15-1/2 kilograms of fresh cocoons, per ounce of silkworm eggs. This compared very unfavourably with the average annual production of fresh cocoons in France and Italy at that time, which was 35 kilograms and 30 kilograms respectively per ounce of silkworm eggs. Moreover, this ratio had been, up to that period, on a descending scale. In a report published in 1897 Mr. Gennadius attributed this unsatisfactory state of things to the following causes: 1. The importation of cheap silkworm eggs of inferior quality; the average price paid by merchants was 2 to 2-1/2 francs per ounce, while the price in France ranged from 9 to 12 francs. 2. The action of merchants who imported larger quantities of eggs than they could properly dispose of. 3. The ignorance and folly of rearers who undertook to rear far more worms than they could properly "educate," having regard to space, leaves and labour.