Silk reeling is unfortunately done in the most primitive manner with wooden appliances and hot water by village hand labour. The locally reeled silk is used only for Island consumption and the great bulk of cocoons is exported in the raw state, mostly to Lyons and Milan. The burden of freight on this bulky cargo is naturally a heavy handicap and the local silkworm rearers have consequently to be content with very low and inadequate prices for their cocoons. During the reeling process 20 to 25 per cent. of the silk is lost, and a further loss is incurred during weaving owing to the numerous knots having to be cut away and the silk threads rejoined. A considerable loss is said to take place in selling cocoons in the European markets. The cocoons on arrival at Marseilles are subjected to official tests and sold according to the reports made by the official testers. It is of advantage to the buyers that the report should be made as unfavourable as possible as the price is lowered proportionately, and it is felt that the cocoons exported are thus placed too much at the mercy of the testing officials. These Cyprus cocoons are reeled in France and Italy and the silk is largely sold to England. It would be to the mutual benefit of England and Cyprus if a direct demand for Cyprus reeled silk could be created and modern reeling plant introduced into the Island. A large sum of money, now annually paid for freight, would thus be saved to the Cypriot producers, which would stimulate the local industry and tend to increase greatly the annual production and improve the local weaving of silk stuffs, an industry which has already gained considerable fame and at which the Cypriot women are adepts. As the following table shows, the amount of raw silk exported is a negligible quantity, but a fairly large quantity is locally reeled and is used in making the silk stuffs which are so much sought after in the local bazaars: ___________________________________________________________________ Export of cocoons. | Export of | Export of raw silk | cocoons waste. | ------------------------------------------------------------------- _Year._|_Okes._|_Country._|_Okes._|_Country._|_Okes._|_Country._ ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1909 |41,013 |France | 2,120 |France | 6 |Turkey 1910 |44,550 | " | 1,105 | " | 259 | " | | | | | 157 |Egypt 1911 |57,422 | " | 2,704 | " | 246 |Turkey | | | | | 70 |Egypt 1912 |43,196 | " | 2,571 | " | 90 |Turkey | | | 70 |Turkey | 3 |Greece 1913 |48,884 | " | 2,502 |France | 118 |Turkey ___________________________________________________________________