Notes on Agriculture in Cyprus and Its Products Part 10

The most favoured variety was at first, and with many growers still is, what is known as the French potato, the original seed having been brought from France. Irish potatoes (locally called "pittakoura") have now largely displaced these, partly, no doubt, on account of the greater facility of obtaining the latter seed during the war.

A native variety of potato, believed to have been imported by Syrian Arabs in the sixteenth century, is still grown on a small scale in the Maratha.s.sa valley. This potato has deep-set eyes and a luxuriant growth above ground and possesses a characteristic sweet taste.

Great progress has been made within the last few years in the matter of cultivation, and the old practice of planting broadcast on the flat has given way to ridge planting at proper distances apart. The practice formerly was to drop the potatoes into the plough furrow. These were covered over by the return plough; every third furrow was sown.

The Egyptian demand and the purchases made for military purposes have greatly stimulated production.

The good prices obtained have led, particularly in the Famagusta district and in what are called the "red earth" villages, to much activity and no small outlay in the matter of water-supply and distribution, and in the use of chemical manures.

The custom has grown up for importers to send their seed potatoes for planting in the higher parts of the Island. The produce therefrom is exchanged with growers in the plains, who send up their plain-grown tubers as seed to the cultivators in the hills. Merchants often stipulate with the hill-growers that they shall have their crop at an agreed, and generally a fairly high, figure. In this manner degeneration of the seed has been r.e.t.a.r.ded; but owing to the difficulty of obtaining seed from outside during the war a certain amount of degeneration has taken place.

Only one crop can be grown in the hills during the year, but in the plains two crops are obtained. The one is planted in January and is dug in May-June; the other is planted in July and dug in November. It is found that the tubers lifted in the summer suffer greatly from the heat, and heavy losses occur from rot, whether the tubers remain in the ground or if they are dug and stored; and it is a question whether, when these losses are taken into account, the summer crop is really profitable.

The average yield is sometimes put at 2,000 okes per donum, but 1,600 okes, or 2 tons, is probably a more accurate figure.

_Kolokas_ (_Colocasia antiquorum_)

This is a favourite food of the villager, but can only be grown where there is an ample water-supply and on heavy land that holds the water.

It is an exhausting crop. The root only is eaten. It is sown in March-April and dug about October-November.

_Onions_

These are generally grown, especially in the Paphos district; Famagusta and Lima.s.sol following in the order named. The Paphos onions are supposed to have particularly good keeping qualities. Both round ("strongyla") and long varieties ("tolmalikia") are grown; the latter have less fleshy scales than the former.

Onions are grown either in irrigated gardens or in "livadhia," or low-lying lands which retain their moisture, no irrigation being needed.

They are propagated by means of "konari" or bulblets. Lapithos in the Kyrenia district makes a speciality of producing these from seed and supplying them to the whole Island, although onions are grown for market only on a limited scale in that area. The method is to plant out the full-grown onions (locally called "mammes") and leave them to ripen their seed. The seed is sown in February-March, at the rate of 20-25 okes per donum, from which some 3,000 okes of "konari" are raised. These are then sold for planting out in October-November-December at the rate of 40-50 okes per donum.

Onions are grown either in rows or broadcast. The native variety has the outer scales of a reddish colour, but these have largely given way to superior imported kinds.

FODDERS AND FEEDING STUFFS

_Carob Tree_

The carob (_Ceratonia siliqua_) is indigenous in Syria, and probably also in the northern countries of Africa, whence it presumably spread to certain parts of Asia Minor, to Greece, the Greek Islands and Southern Italy.

At the time of Christ, and for some centuries later, this tree was known to the Greeks by the name of keronia or keratea, being the Greek for horns, and is given to the locust or carob bean from its supposed resemblance to goats' horns. It is also known in different parts of Cyprus under the following names; teratsia (a corruption of keratea), xylokeratea, kountouroudia, koutsoupia and charoupia. The last named is of Arabic origin (kharroub) and the same root of the word is common all over Europe. Moreover, the fruit varies slightly according to locality, and develops local characteristics which have acquired for it distinctive local names; thus in Kyrenia District we have templiotike and kyrionitike, in the Karpas there is the sarakine (introduced by Saracens?) and elsewhere the vaklitike and kombote. This bean or pod, which when ripe is of a chocolate colour, contains from 6 to 10 hard seeds, embedded in a sweet, pithy, honey-like substance which imparts the flavour so much appreciated by animals.

The carob tree belongs to the natural order Leguminosae, sub-order Caesalpinae, and is the only species of the genus _Ceratonia_. It is an evergreen, long-lived tree, growing to a height of 30 ft. and sometimes even to 50 and 60 ft. It thrives in most kinds of soil, especially in porous, marly and even volcanic soils, but not in marshy lands. Owing to its long tap root it resists drought well, and is to be found growing well in rocky land such as is common in many of the carob areas of Cyprus. It is very generally found intermixed with the olive tree and up to about the same alt.i.tude.

A succession of flowers is produced from July to September or October, and in favourable years up to December and even later, and in July-August the tree bears both flowers and ripe fruit. The collection of the latter commences about mid-August, the exact date being annually fixed separately in each district by the Commissioner. This is done in order to prevent the fruit from being stolen.

Recent investigations made by the Agricultural Department go to prove that the fruit-producing carob tree of Cyprus is really hermaphrodite, though there yet remains much room for investigation and the point is not finally settled. The others are true male trees. The hermaphrodite carob trees which form practically the whole of the fruit-producing trees of the Island are cleistogamous (_i.e._ self-fertilised before the calyx opens) and short-stamened.

There are also certain trees self-produced from seed which are superior to the ordinary so-called wild tree. These bear fruit which is straight and short but more or less marketable, and these are known as "kountoura" (short) or "apostoliki," as though sent by chance or by Providence. The word "apostoliki" is applied in Cyprus to other kinds of trees or fruit showing similar phenomena.

There are several millions of these trees in the State forests, and yet more privately owned. It frequently happens that, owing to the wide powers of testamentary disposition, a single tree pa.s.ses by inheritance to several heirs.

Many thousands of carob plants are annually raised in the Government gardens and issued at a trifling charge. The common method of propagation has been to sow the seeds in pots, and when the plant is from 18 in. to 2 ft. high it is ready for transplanting. The seed, which is very hard, is softened by placing it in a cauldron or saucepan of cold water. The water is then brought to the boil. On arriving at boiling-point the water is cooled and should then be changed and the seed left to steep for twenty-four hours. Owing to the long tap root, sowing in ordinary nursery beds has not been satisfactory, as the plants, which certainly make better growth than in pots, do not transplant well.

The foregoing methods have to a great extent been superseded by that of germinating the seed in damp sand and sowing direct in the field in properly prepared holes. Little watering is needed if the holes are deep and the soil kept friable. A top mulch is useful to conserve the moisture.

Transplanting from pots or beds is best done when the plants are twelve months old and about 12 in. high, after that it is precarious. Grafting may be done as soon as the stem is thick enough to take a graft, either before or after transplanting.

The tree is liable to attack by insects and other pests. Scale (_Aspidiotus ceratoniae_) is very common; but the greatest damage of late years has been caused by the fly _Cecidomyia ceratoniae_, which lays its eggs on the flowers or newly-set fruit, and the grub feeds on the bean, causing it to become stunted and of no commercial value. This stunted condition is locally known as "brachycarpia" and has been the subject of careful scientific study and practical treatment by the Agricultural Department during the last few years. Very satisfactory results have been recorded from the campaigns, which have so far been limited to the Kyrenia District, and these have justified the extension of compulsory treatment to other infected areas. This and other pests, such as _Myelois ceratoniae_, _Cossus liniperda_ (a lepidopterous boring insect), a species of _Mycetiasis_, and a small hymenopterous fly which has lately appeared and is now under investigation, have, no doubt, checked production. The attacks of _Cecidomyia_, when serious, reduce the yield by 80 per cent. or over, and normally may lessen it by 40 to 50 per cent.

Much damage is also caused by rats (_Mus alexandrinus_), which gnaw the bark of the branches, causing them to dry up. Their destruction is encouraged by Government by the payment of 1 cp. per tail.

Carob gathering commences about mid-August and lasts for about a month.

The beans are knocked down with long sticks, put into sacks and brought into store, or heaped up in the open air, where they often remain for several weeks. This is a safe procedure, as there is little rainfall at that season, and what might fall would not harm the beans, which would quickly dry again.

It is not easy to estimate the yield per donum of carob trees, but a.s.suming that the trees were planted 30 ft. apart, and there were 16 medium-sized trees to the donum, the yield would average somewhere about 1,260 okes to the donum. The yield varies from year to year, a good year generally being followed by a moderate year. The fruit may be destroyed by frost in January and February, knocked off by hail-stones in March and April or scorched by hot winds in May or June. A full-sized, well-cultivated tree can give up to 720 okes. Taking good and bad years, the value of the annual produce of a medium-sized tree is 5_s_.

Carobs are sold by the Aleppo cantar of 180 okes, and the normal price may be put at from 13_s._ to 17_s._ per cantar delivered into store.

Carobs are weighed on export and the t.i.the is taken in money from exporters at the Customs House.

The following table shows the export of carobs during the ten years ending 1913-14:

Year. Quant.i.ty. Value.

_Tons._ 1904-05 31,887 104,301 1905-06 26,187 85,105 1906-07 44,965 157,452 1907-08 42,381 151,610 1908-09 57,010 188,841 1909-10 44,059 157,972 1910-11 37,485 145,590 1911-12 51,359 182,883 1912-13 63,658 251,750 1913-14 44,989 179,027

The falling-off in 1913-14 was mainly due to the losses caused by the fly _Cecidomyia ceratoniae_.

The fruit of the carob is exported mostly to England, but also to France and Egypt, and more recently, before the war, to Germany. Gaudry mentions that about the middle of last century it was exported to Russia, Sardinia and Austria. Some is used, in Egypt and the Levant especially, as food for the poorer cla.s.ses and for making sweets and sherbets. Its chief use in Western Europe is as food for animals, bovine and equine, for which purpose it is ground up and made into either meal or cattle cakes. It is also said to be employed in the manufacture of chocolate and spirit, and there is a demand for the seed for use in the manufacture of certain gums.

The juice of the bean, "carob honey," locally called "mavromelos,"

"teratsomelo" or "betmezi," is consumed as a subst.i.tute for bee-honey or jam and also as a flavouring for culinary purposes. From the carob honey is also made the sweetmeat "pastelli."

At one time carobs were used in Cyprus for fattening mules and other animals, but, unfortunately, this practice died out. Efforts are now being made to revive it, and the advantages of this local product are again becoming recognised.

The carob contains some 50 per cent. of saccharine matter and the interesting question has been raised in recent years as to whether the bean might not become a new source of sugar production.

_Lucerne_ (_Medicago sativa_)

This plant was introduced about eighteen years ago, but in spite of its undoubted success when properly grown on suitable soil, the Cypriot farmer was for many years very slow to make use of it. Every effort has been made of late years to encourage its cultivation and during the last three or four years there has been a steadily increased demand for seed.

Irrigation is necessary in order to obtain a satisfactory yield, but there are many farms where it might be grown with great advantage. Its value for cattle food is generally recognised, and now that greater attention is being given to dairy cattle, lucerne would seem to have an a.s.sured future.

_Vetch_ (_Vicia Ervilia_)

This plant, known locally as "rovi," is undoubtedly the most widely grown of the fodder crops. Being a leguminous plant, it has a restorative action on the soil, although the average Cypriot farmer still considers it to be exhaustive.

In the plains sowing begins in January, whereas in the Pitsillia, and even in the Morphou, Solea and Tylliria districts which are only at the foothills, it is sown in October-November, _i.e._ before the cereals.