Show si Silk Moths and Butterflies To Make Make Desert Profitable I KHARTUM I Sudan March 11 By Universal Universal Universal Uni Uni- I versal Service Service Few Few people probably i i realize how the Sudan has progressed since the the days clays a when e Kitchener i he finally I I crushed e heth the power OW of f the mahdi and a aI made Khartum a center for a progressive progressive progressive II I sive civilization west vest of the Red fled sea In those days It seemed foolish to suppose I that a sheer desert could ever over be made madeI profitable but although it still holds I sway over many hundreds of oC miles the fact remains that It Is being pushed back The primitive irrigation methods of the thelIe I Nile lIe have have- been Improved on scientific lines and year by year more land Is made to yield a profitable return I The benefit of scientific application to problems of this kind Is nowhere more clearly seen than In this region for in instead instead instead in- in I stead of wasting time and money In tryIng tryIng trying try- try Ing to Induce things to grow which are I I not suited to the desert the s scientist bends his energies to the task of finding out the kinds of animal or plant best suited to the conditions and experiments with Ith the natural productions with a view to turning them to economic use An Interesting experiment of this kind kindis is now being carried out at the research center In Gordon college Along the banks of the Nile and often some way into the desert the or castor oil plant grows freely In a wild state AI Although Although Al Al- though possessing the well known and valuable properties in some degree these I plants do not yield sufficient oil to mal make G their utilization ti tie In remunerative e competition competition compe compe- with the East Indian product I It happens however th that t a species of silk moth the Atta us feeds upon this plant This large handsome moth produces a Very vely strong silk silk not not so fine I It is true as that of the mori morl from which the best silk is procured but still extremely useful in these days when silk Is used used- for tor even more Important purposes purposes purposes pur pur- poses than the manufacture of fine rai ral- rai- rai ment Large numbers of ot the eggs of this moth have been Imported and the larvae reared in the laboratories Over 1000 moths have emerged from the pupa during a three-day three period and the scene in the room at night was singular in the exI extreme ex ex- ex- ex for it was filled a mass of I fluttering wings and palpitating life iffe The females are sluggish and do not move far from their position but the males male a dart here and there seeking the individual mate which seems most desirable Later large quantities of eggs larvae and perfect moths will be turned out on the wild plants in the hope that they may settle down and breed naturally This may not be a success for there may be some natural enemy which is too strong for the species but it Is a notable fact that the development of oC this district during the past ten years has been so great that no fewer than nine species of I butterfly hitherto only known in the more equatorial reaches of the river have acclimatized ac- ac themselves here of ot their own accord |