Littell's Living Age/Volume 138/Issue 1785/The Agricultural Products of Cyprus
THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF CYPRUS.
The following statistics as to the agricultural products of Cyprus are taken from a report furnished to the Imperial Geographical Society of Vienna by an officer of the Austrian army. Although written so far back as 1873, the report will still be found interesting, owing to the great scarcity of information regarding the island. Of wheat, which is one of its chief products, Cyprus raises in a good year about one million five hundred thousand bushels. Of these about one million bushels are consumed in the island, leaving about five hundred thousand bushels for export. The shipments commence in the month of June, and in 1872 the average price of wheat, placed free on board ship, was about 4s. 2d. per bushel. Barley is also cultivated to a considerable extent, but the bulk of it is consumed in the island; and in some localities small quantities of maize, oats, and millet are raised. Carobs, or locust-beans, are largely cultivated. The annual harvest of these varies from eight thousand to twelve thousand tons, and the fruit is generally ready for export about the beginning of September. Its price varies from 70s. to 140s. per ton, and about three-fourths of the total export goes to Russia, Egypt taking the bulk of the remainder. Of raisins, Cyprus produces annually about one hundred and fifty tons. They are of medium quality, fetch about 11l. per ton, and are mostly shipped to Alexandria, Beyrout, and Constantinople. Wine is still one of the chief products of the island. About one hundred and forty thousand gallons of the common red wine are produced yearly, the retail price being about 10d. a gallon. Somewhere about one-third of this quantity is consumed on the island. Of the better wines, the annual product is about eighteen thousand gallons, and these are nearly all exported. They are bought up by speculators, who store them until matured; the price ultimately realized for Commandine, which is the kind most sought after, varying from 4s. 2d. a gallon when it is two years old, to twenty times that sum when it has been kept for twenty-five years. Brandy also is made from raisins and damaged grapes, and about thirty-four thousand gallons are sent each year to Alexandria. Nearly eight thousand bales of cotton, of the average weight of two hundredweight each, are exported yearly, the home consumption absorbing an additional one thousand bales. Silk used to be an important article of export, but owing to the outbreak of a disease the production has been greatly curtailed. In good years about two hundred and twenty thousand gallons of olive oil, two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty tons of madder root, and one hundred tons of nuts are produced. Sumach grows without particular care, and from three hundred to four hundred tons are yearly exported to England and Syria. In 1873 the total value of the exports from Cyprus was 360,000l., and of the imports, 88,000l. In 1875, according to our consular reports, the exports amounted to 384,000l., and the imports to 200,000l. Two-thirds of the total tonnage of ships trading with Cyprus belonged to Austria.