Notes on Agriculture in Cyprus and Its Products Part 5

_b.u.t.ter_

b.u.t.ter making is carried on to only a limited extent in Cyprus, and with two or three exceptions is in the hands of shepherds, who use a primitive conical-shaped churn, something after the Danish pattern.

Churning consists in beating up the contents of the churn with a stick, to the end of which is fixed a round wooden disc 6 to 10 in. in diameter, not unlike a piston in its action. Sheep's milk is mostly used and, with a modern churn, this will yield 9 to 12 per cent. of fresh b.u.t.ter. Goats' milk gives about 5 to 6 per cent. About half the above quant.i.ties may be obtained with the older, native churn.

In the Near East (Greece, Turkey, etc.) fresh b.u.t.ter is not used in cooking, as almost all cooked food is fried and b.u.t.ter containing the least water and casein cannot serve the purpose. The pure fat must therefore be extracted. Two methods are applied. The best is that of plunging the tins containing the fresh b.u.t.ter into hot water which heats the b.u.t.ter and sends the fat to the surface. It is then collected and slightly salted. This has a good flavour and keeps well.

The second method is to place the fresh b.u.t.ter, or the residue from the former process, into tin pans and boil until the water is evaporated, when the alb.u.minoids solidify at the bottom of the pans. The fat which is then on the surface is ladled out. This is inferior in quality, and has a disagreeable smell imparted by the alb.u.minoids which come in contact with the hot pan.

_Xynogala or Yaourti_

The former is the Greek, the latter the Turkish name for this preparation of sour milk. Unlike fresh b.u.t.ter, it forms, in season, part of the diet of almost every Cypriot household. It is now made in England and sold as "Bulgarian milk" or "yaourti." It is in the form of clotted cream, but if placed in a bag of fine cloth and if the whey is left to drain off, it forms a thick paste, and has an excellent creamy flavour, and is eaten in both cases either alone or, like Devons.h.i.+re cream, with stewed fruits, etc.

_Trachanas_

This is another favourite milk preparation, being a mixture of "yaourti"

and ground wheat made into a thick paste. This is sun-dried and makes an excellent soup.

_Kaimaki or Tsippa_

This much resembles Devons.h.i.+re clotted cream. It is the natural cream formed after boiling the milk overnight and setting it in shallow pans to cool. If the boiled milk is poured into the pans from a height, so as to make a foam, a better result is obtained.

V. CROPS AND OTHER PRODUCE OF THE LAND

CEREALS

The Messaoria plain is the princ.i.p.al corn-producing area of the island.

Wheat, barley and oats are the chief cereals grown, and they are sown more or less throughout the whole of Cyprus, nearly up to the summit of Troodos, to an alt.i.tude of about 4,500 ft. Indian corn has been cultivated for ten years or so, and is becoming more general both for green food and for seed, and rye has begun to make its appearance during the last few years. Dari is becoming more known.

The preparation of the land for cereals is as follows: About the middle of January, when the land is soaked with rain, the fallow field ([Greek: neasma] or [Greek: neatos]) is broken up, and in some cases sown with a green fallow, and in March or April it is cross ploughed ([Greek: dibolo]). If the autumn rains are early, the field is ploughed for a third time ([Greek: anakomma]), after which the crop is sown; but if the rains are late, the sowing is done on fields which have been cross ploughed only. As a rule sowing begins after the autumn rains, and may go on until January. But if rain does not come before the end of October, many sow before the rain; and in many places farmers sow regularly before, _i.e._ without waiting for the autumn rains. This sowing is called [Greek: xerobola]. Lands flooded by a river or other running water are called [Greek: potima] (_Handbook of Cyprus_, p. 154).

The sowing is done broadcast; the drill is not used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V.

Fig. 1.--Carting Corn.

Fig. 2.--Thres.h.i.+ng Corn with Native Thres.h.i.+ng Board.]

Often, owing to want of sufficient hands and shortness of time or other reasons, land which has been fallowed is sown without being first ploughed up. This is called [Greek: eis to prosopon], _i.e._ on the surface, or face of the field. Again, a field which has had a corn crop is sown the next autumn without ploughing; and this is locally called "on the stubble."

It is not uncommon for the same land to be sown year after year with a corn crop, with no rotation. This is especially the case with the deep soils in the plains, known as "kambos," as contrasted with the shallow, rocky soils called "trachonas."

At the time of harvest numbers of labourers, men and women, usually arrive from Anatolia and Syria and find employment in the fields.

The thres.h.i.+ng-floors are practically identical with those of Biblical times. They are frequently paved with flag-stones, but as often as not are merely levelled pieces of ground. On these the sheaves are opened and spread out for the thres.h.i.+ng. The thres.h.i.+ng-board ([Greek: doukani]

or [Greek: doukanais]) is that referred to by Virgil as _tribulum_ (Georg. Bk. 1) and is merely a stout board, studded on the underside with sharp flint stones (see Plate V, fig. 2). This is drawn round and round over the spread-out sheaves by mules, donkeys or oxen, and affords a pastime to old and young during the summer months. During the process the grain is separated from the straw, and the latter is bruised and partly shredded, and it is the rooted belief of the Cypriot farmer that only in that condition will it be relished by and benefit the animals which feed on it. The straw is then gradually cleared away and the grain is winnowed by being thrown up in the wind with wooden shovels. The grain is then heaped up and left until measured by the t.i.the official.

With the grain is also collected the sweepings of the thres.h.i.+ng-floor, and the percentage of the foreign substances mixed with the grain varies from 5 to 15 per cent. There are a few winnowing machines and it is hoped that they will come into more general use as soon as they can be imported.

At Athala.s.sa all cereal crops are reaped and threshed by machinery.

A good many reaping machines were imported by the Agricultural Department some years ago for resale to the farmers, and there is a very fair demand. This procedure has not been permitted for some years, and the work fell into the hands of an English merchant who has succeeded in placing a few machines every year. The country is ready to employ these and other agricultural machines, but the farmers need guidance in the choice of a machine and are reluctant to place orders through native merchants, who may not know the best types to supply and whose profits they fear to be exorbitant. If they could procure these through the medium of the Agricultural Department they would be encouraged to make considerable purchases. The loss of grain on the "aloni" alone may be gauged by the current opinion that each pair of oxen consumes, while thres.h.i.+ng, one kile of grain per day. Much damage is often caused by hot westerly winds at the time when the grain is just forming.

In the absence of any law to prevent the adulteration of cereals, dishonest practices are very frequent. A common method of adulteration is to mix with the grain the joints of the straw which are cut during the process of thres.h.i.+ng and separated when winnowing. These are often sprayed with water in order to increase both bulk and weight. The moisture is absorbed by the grain, which thereby swells and is made to look bigger.

Under the Seed Corn Law of 1898 the Government make advances of seed wheat, barley, oats and vetches to cultivators under an agreement to repay in kind after harvest a quant.i.ty of grain equivalent to the amount of seed so advanced, together with an addition of one-fourth of the quant.i.ty so advanced, by way of interest.

This benefit is very generally availed of by smaller cultivators. It has not, however, been found possible for Government to keep separately the various kinds and qualities of t.i.the corn, from which these advances are made, and farmers frequently complain that the seed, so issued promiscuously, is unsuitable to the land, aspect, or special conditions on individual farms. Weevilled grain also is a source of trouble, and farmers obtaining such seed advances must be prepared to run risk of failure from this cause.

It is a well-known fact that cultivators often sell their seed corn so advanced them, in order to buy some other corn known to them as more suited to their land, and they are often justified, perhaps, in so doing.

The issues are made by District Commissioners to selected applicants who are believed to be unable to buy seed for cash. The average annual issues, for the last five years, have been: wheat, 38,013 kiles; barley, 31,479 kiles.

_Wheat_

In ancient times, when the population numbered about 1,100,000, the Island was said to be self-supporting in the matter of wheat. Taking the annual consumption of wheat per head of population at 8 bushels (Gennadius's _Report on the Agriculture of Cyprus_, Part I, p. 8) and after making an allowance for seed, the annual production would then have been about 10,000,000 bushels. From British Consular Reports it appears that in 1863 the average produce was reckoned at 640,000 bushels. The average annual production of wheat for the ten years ended 1913, as shown in Blue Book Returns, was 2,292,827 kiles. For later years the figures are:

Year. Kiles.

1914 1,924,336 1915 1,761,501 1916 1,524,484 1917 1,782,800 1918 2,424,570

Wheat is sown at the rate of 1 kile per donum. The average yield per donum is 6 to 10 kiles, and varies between 3 to 4 kiles on dry land in a poor year, to 16 to 20 on the best lands in a good year. When rains are very late and spring weather is unfavourable, a farmer often fails to recover even the seed.

Much might be done to increase the yield by better methods of husbandry, by the use of improved implements for cultivating and reaping, and by the use of thres.h.i.+ng machines. An immense quant.i.ty of grain is consumed by birds (larks, sparrows, doves, etc.), which at times literally strip the fields and continue their depredations on the thres.h.i.+ng-floors.

Wheat is sown from October to December; a field which has had a winter crop is pastured after the harvest until January; in January and February it is broken up and cross ploughed and sown immediately after with a spring or summer crop.

The crop is cut about May-June. It is cut with a sickle ([Greek: drepani]), tied into sheaves, and carried on donkeys or small carts to the thres.h.i.+ng-floors. The sickle is larger than the European one, and is often provided with bells ("koudounia" or "sousounaria") to frighten the snakes, and the handles are ornamented with leather ta.s.sels.

Several varieties of wheat are grown in the Island, mostly of the hard kinds, these being preferred by millers.

The following English varieties have been imported and tried during the last four years: Improved Treasure, White Stand Up, and Improved Red Fife. The two former failed, being too late in maturing; the latter is still under trial, but it is not very attractive, being a late variety, and it gives a smaller yield than the native kinds. The same remarks apply to several wheats obtained from India and South Africa and which are still under trial.

_Barley_

This crop is sown about the same time as wheat, if anything slightly earlier; and it is ready for the sickle three or four weeks before wheat. When the straw is short the plant is uprooted, not cut.

It is sown at the rate of 1 to 1-1/2 kiles to the donum, and may be expected to yield from 10 to 15 kiles; but 30 kiles is not uncommon in the plains, and even much larger yields have been recorded from time to time.

There are three native varieties, viz. the common 4-row, the ordinary 6-row and the Paphos 6-row barley, also grown around Davlos in the north-east of the Island. The last-named is heavier than the two former kinds. Little success has attended the introduction by the Agricultural Department of "Prize Prolific," "Gold Thorpe" and "Chevalier," which have been experimentally grown for the last three years. They mature late and have not resisted severe drought. Their yield is small compared with native barleys, although this may improve when they are fully acclimatised.