Notes on Agriculture in Cyprus and Its Products Part 6

Barley is the staple food for all kinds of animals, pigs and poultry in Cyprus, and it is often used for bread-making in years of wheat shortage.

The t.i.the is mainly exported to England, where it has a good name for malting purposes, especially that produced in the Paphos district. It has failed to attain the place it deserves on the English market owing to the high percentage of dirt, etc., it mostly contains.

A sample of Cyprus barley examined at the Imperial Inst.i.tute in 1914 proved to be of good malting quality, and similar material if marketed in commercial quant.i.ties would be readily saleable in the United Kingdom (see BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSt.i.tUTE, vol. xii. 1914, p. 552).

A sample of naked or skinless barley from Cyprus has also been reported on by the Imperial Inst.i.tute. This type of barley cannot be employed for malting for ordinary brewing purposes, but it was considered that the Cyprus material might be used by distillers (who only require a partially malted barley), and in any case the sample would rank as a good cla.s.s feeding barley (_ibid._ vol. xiv, 1916, p. 159).

The average annual production of barley, as shown by the Blue Book returns, for the ten years ended 1913 was 2,449,285 kiles. For later years the figures are:

Year. Kiles.

1914 1,957,944 1915 1,912,316 1916 1,953,628 1917 2,508,880 1918 3,080,710

These figures should be contrasted with British consular estimated average in the sixties of 960,000 bushels.

_Oats_

In Cyprus, oats are used on a far smaller scale than barley as food for cattle, and they are unknown, except to a few townsfolk, as a food for human beings.

The cultivation of this crop is restricted, partly because it ripens late and needs late rains, and partly because it sheds its ripe grain too quickly for the ordinary easy-going farmer, who frequently finds his next year's crop smothered with self-sown oats. It is also commonly held that the crop exhausts the soil.

There are two native varieties, both white. The one is grown much more than the other, called "anoyira," which, although incomparably superior, is little cultivated outside the Lima.s.sol district.

The seed is sown at the rate of 2 to 2-1/2 kiles to the donum, and a yield of from 20 to 30 kiles is obtained. The average annual production for the ten years ended 1913, as shown by Blue Book returns, was 394,695 kiles. For later years the figures are:

Year. Kiles.

1914 404,917 1915 378,724 1916 446,469 1917 306,010 1918 313,260

Besides "Black Tartar," which has been regularly grown at Athala.s.sa for several years, the Agricultural Department has introduced of late years "Black Cl.u.s.ter," "White Cl.u.s.ter" and "Supreme." All these ripen late and need late rains, and they have not given any promise of success. A black variety imported from Greece some years ago has proved much superior to the two native varieties, but its cultivation is still limited.

Reports on oats from Cyprus and on oat, straw and kyko oat plant (_Avena sativa_ var. _obtusata_) are given in the BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSt.i.tUTE (vol. xv. 1917, pp. 308-10).

_Rye_

Rye has only lately been introduced by the Agricultural Department, but already its cultivation, though very small, is extending. The dark colour of the rye loaf creates some prejudice against it, but its value in cases of diabetes, a common complaint in Cyprus, is greatly in its favour.

The seed is sown and cultivated here in the same manner as wheat, but at the same time or even earlier than barley. It is harvested by being cut and is threshed on the thres.h.i.+ng-floor. The straw is fed to animals, but when thres.h.i.+ng machines become more general the long straw will become available for other purposes than cattle food, _e.g._ in the manufacture of the native saddles ("stratura"), native straw trays and native straw hats.

Rye is also grown for green food, in the same way as barley gra.s.s.

_Maize_ (_Indian Corn_)

This crop was first introduced by the Agricultural Department in 1902.

Its cultivation is governed by the water-supply. It is grown mostly for green food, and is met with very generally throughout the Island, being sown among the growing crops, _e.g._ louvi, sesame, cotton, etc., as a wind-break or to afford shade. There was a good demand for the grain for grinding during the war and the meal is found to be a useful ingredient in the ordinary loaf. The stems and leaves provide a welcome change of food for cattle when exhausted from thres.h.i.+ng and during the dry season of the year. At the Government Farm at Athala.s.sa the stems and leaves are made into ensilage.

_Dari or Millet_ (_Sorghum vulgare_)

This crop is little grown, and is mostly found in the Messaria and also at Paleochori, almost exclusively in places irrigated by river floods.

The grain is used for making flour and the fresh stalks are fed to cattle.

FRUITS

Cyprus produces a considerable variety of fruits, the chief ones exported being raisins, pomegranates, oranges and lemons, and grapes.

There is a considerable and expanding export trade in the fruits enumerated, as shown by Blue Book returns as under:

Year. .

1904 29,706 1905 29,265 1906 41,716 1907 36,009 1908 35,027 1909 29,890 1910 52,267 1911 57,393 1912 59,887 1913 69,097

The pomegranate of Famagusta is famous, and the annual export of this fruit alone during the five years ended 1913 averaged 14,682.

Among the mountain villages apples, pears, and plums are extensively grown; the latter specially being in good demand in Egypt.

Apricots and kaisha trees are grown generally throughout the Island, and their fruits are particularly good and plentiful. The last-named is a delicious variety with a delicate flavour and externally somewhat resembles the nectarine. Peaches are mostly grafted on almond stocks, as these are hardy and good drought-resisters, but there are a fair number of European varieties. Almond trees abound in all parts and do extremely well if properly cultivated. Other fairly common fruit trees are the quince and loquat, or j.a.panese medlar.

For several years choice kinds of fruit trees have been imported from England, and many thousands of trees of different kinds throughout the Island have been grafted and are now beginning to produce fruit of excellent quality. Good work has been done by the Perapedhi Wine a.s.sociation, whose garden has been a centre for the dissemination of choice grafts.

Unhappily the village growers have been very reluctant to apply proper cultivation or to carry out advice in treating their trees, which have become the hosts of all kinds of diseases and insect pests. A better spirit is now being shown in this direction.

_Vines and Wines_

Writing in 1896, Gennadius described the industry and perseverance of the peasants, who with most imperfect implements, by breaking up the hard rock and building up the scanty soil, formed vineyards on the steep mountain sides, and often up to their very summits. These vineyards, he says, having been mostly planted in haste in the happy days of the demand for wines (when French vineyards were destroyed by phylloxera), were formed by the personal labour of the peasant eked out by the help of loans. Since then the wine trade has pa.s.sed through critical times and prices have often been greatly depreciated. The small vine-growers, who are also for the most part wine-producers, fell on evil times and became heavily indebted. They have remained so until the last year or two, when, owing to the large demand and the high prices of wines in Egypt, they have been able to free themselves.

Gennadius regarded the cultivation of the vine in Cyprus as indisputably unprofitable, and was in favour of checking its extension, and even advocated the imposition of a special tax on new plantations. At the time he wrote there was an overproduction, and the value of wine had greatly fallen, and the revenue which Cypriot wine-makers could gain therefrom would hardly suffice to cover the expenses of its transport to the market, the annual interest on their debts, and the taxes they had to meet.

The village-made wine is usually clarified by means of gypsum. It is carried down from the mountain villages in goat-skins (askos or as.h.i.+a) on pack animals, and then sold to the Lima.s.sol merchants, who s.h.i.+p the greater part to Egypt.

The production of wine as carried out in Cyprus leaves much to be desired. M. Mouillefert, who visited Cyprus in 1892 to report on the wine industry, says: "The vintage is often gathered too late.

Insufficient care is given to the picking of the grapes and diseased, rotten, mildewy or unripe grapes are often used which detract from the quality of the wine.

"The grapes are trodden and the fermentation takes place in jars and chatties of porous earth, of a capacity of 2 or 3 hectolitres, which are tarred inside to counteract their porosity. The houses in which the fermentation takes place are of almost the same temperature as the surrounding air, with the result that in the warmer parts of the Island fermentation at first is generally rapid or disturbed, and the temperature of the must becomes excessive. In the colder parts, on the contrary, the opposite takes place and the resulting wine is rough and sharp. The use of gypsum as a preservative is unfortunately very common.

The tarring of the goat-skins and jars imparts a flavour which is very unsuited to the European taste."

M. Mouillefert made the following recommendations: "Tarred jars for fermentation should be replaced by wooden vats, or, in the warmer parts of the Island, by tuns similar to those used throughout the South of France and in Algeria. Presses less primitive than those in use should be employed since these leave in the lees a very large quant.i.ty of wine.

The wine when drawn off from the lees should be kept in tuns or in small wooden casks." "In short," he says, "to speak quite plainly, no good wine destined for ordinary consumption can be obtained with jars."

Some twenty years ago an English Wine Company was established at Perapedhi and, until the war, carried on a successful trade and produced some good wines manufactured on modern lines. The factory was well equipped with up-to-date plant, and its wine of port type was especially popular. It was throughout the greater part of this time owned by the firm of W. H. Chaplin & Co., London, but since the war it has been closed down. The excellent brandy of Messrs. Hadji Pavlo & Co. has found for some time a steady market in England, and there are other well-equipped wine and spirit factories at Lima.s.sol, notably those of the Lima.s.sol Wine & Spirit Co., Ltd., of Mr. M. Michaelides and of Mr.

N. Joannides.

The firm of Messrs. Hadji Pavlo & Co. has carried out since 1872 the manufacture of spirits, and for twenty-five years they have been engaged in producing their "Zanatzin" brand of wines. Their V.O. cognac and three-star brandy are both excellent.

Various liqueurs, made from local products, aniseed, kernels of apricots and other stone fruit, etc., are made by this and other firms, and sold under the name "Zucki."