The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-19
Uganda Cotton


they matured I collected little bag of the silk lint in the seed and sent it on
 to the authorities at Entebbe. Shortly after that l took sick with a fever and it was some months before I recovered. l
 then tried to find what became of my
 silk fiber, but the authorities at Entebbe could not inform me- l spoke of the plant at Archdeacon Walker, the head of the English Church Mission society of Uganda He said he knew it well and agreed with me that it might be valu- able. l cleaned some of the fiber and stuffed a sofa pillow It was as soft as down.
 What is the name of this fiber, Mr. PaslSe-Smith? ?" I asked
 T do not know what it is called bo- tanically or that 1t is mentioned in any botany. The natives call itn Mfumbo." More About Bark Cloth And this leads me to write again about the wonderful bark cloth which is pro- duced by almost every native family and which until recently formed about the
 onls clothing worn by the million-odd people of the kingdom of Uganda. It is used in other countries as well and the natives of German East Africa raise much of ii. There are several varities of trees here which produce it, the favor |, ite being fig tree which grows to a. height of from 30 to 50 feet, and from which bark strips can be taken which average six feet in width and 10 feet in length. The fibers of this bark are inter woven like cloth. It is wonderfully strong and when pounded and treated by the
 natives is almost as soft as velvet It is sewn into durable clothing. Some of this cloth was shipped to New York about year ago, but so far no record as to it's final disposition has been received. The amount sent was 2500 sheets, a similar shipment being made at the same time to London. The bark would make a very fine paper if it were ground, but whether 1t can be used as weaving material for cloth remains to be seen. At present the only demand for 1t is among the natives. The Forests of Uganda. I have just had talk with Dr. Christy, an Englishman, who has a large concession of woodland running along the Nile just below where that great river flows out of Lake Victoria. The tract embraces about 150 square miles, and it Is so situated that the timber could be thrown into the river and foated down to Khartum were 1t not for certain falls of the Nile be- tween Nimuli and Gondokora. As ir is, the chief market will probably be
 
 countries reached by way of the Ugan- da railway. Said pr. Christy:
 Our forests are magnificent. We have mahogany trees 150 feet high. and some of them four and five feet in diameter. They are perfectly straight running up to a great distance without a branch. We have a species of wood that resembles teak. and we have much hard wood, some of which will almost resist the blows of an axe. We ex- pect to do a great deal with that wood, because it. resists the attacks of the white ants, and we can there fore sell it for railroad ties. We have now orders for 300,000 ties, and we have three different varieties of ant proof wood from which we can supply them."
 Rubber In Uganda.
 How about your rubber possibilities, Dr. Christy?" I asked
 We have rubber vines and rubber trees, and some of the latter are 100 feet high, with a large girth. They run from that size down to sprouts. We have about 2,000 900 rubber trees in our concession. They range in diame- ter from three inches to three or four feet. The most of them are ready for tapping, and we shall exploit that part of our concession first. We shall work carefully. delaying the timber export until we have our rubber in- dustry thoroughly estab lished, as We fear that the cutting down of the other trees may break the rubber trees.
 "Our plan now is to cut out the