Part 3

Sheep and goats' milk is principally used for cheese and butter making. Fresh milk of any kind is not much consumed by the native population, although within the last few years the more well-to-do townspeople have taken to drinking cows' milk, when obtainable, and it is in growing demand in some country parts for invalids when prescribed by the local doctor.

The flavour of sheep and goats' milk is a good deal affected by the herbage or shrubs on which they feed, and thus varies according to locality. A characteristic odour is imparted, for instance, by the alnifolia oak (_Quercus alnifolia_) and the cistus, which are common in many parts of the Island, and the cheese and butter produced from such milk are in better demand in the local markets. The places in which this quality of milk is chiefly produced are the Paphos District, the neighbourhood of Kykko and Troöditissa in the Troödos mountains, and Akanthou to the north-east of the Island.

A considerable impetus has been given to the production and consumption of fresh cows' milk by the establishment of a herd of Devon dairy cows at the Government Farm, Athalassa. Cows of Athalassa strain fetch high prices, as much as £80 having been given recently for a cow and several others have changed hands at £50 to £60.

_Cheese_

The Cypriot is a great cheese eater. The most popular and commonly made cheese in Cyprus is that known as Halloumi; the next in order being the Paphos and Akanthou cheeses, and then, in imitation of the Greek cheeses, the Agrafa, Kefalotyri and Kaskaval, all of which are of a hard kind, while there is a small production of the Greek soft cheeses Fetta and Telemés.

There are no statistics as to production; the export figures in recent years as given in the official trade returns are as follows:

Year. Quantity. Value. _Cwts._ £

1904 5,606 8,040 1905 4,705 7,245 1906 2,511 4,238 1907 2,200 4,559 1908 2,786 5,824 1909 2,367 4,927 1910 3,345 6,564 1911 3,647 6,624 1912 3,335 7,203 1913 3,699 9,268 1914 4,582 10,132

_Halloumi._--This cheese, though rather insipid, is very popular, and forms a large part of the dietary of every household. It is easy to make, needs no special appliances, and is almost entirely made by the shepherds themselves. It is made either from sheep's milk only, or, in the hills where goats are numerous, from sheep and goats' milk mixed, or in some places from goats' milk only; especially is this so in the mountains where sheep are not found. The two kinds of cheese, _i.e._ that made from sheep's milk and that from goats' milk, are easily distinguished, as the former is rather soft and crumbly, while the other is hard and separates out into flakes.

This cheese as it comes from the mould is in the form of a slab called "kefali." This is then divided into four or more pieces.

There are two kinds of halloumi: one called "mona" (single), the other "dipla" (double). The latter is most in demand. It differs from the first in being finished off by being well hand-pressed, and then doubled or folded over, salt and spearmint being sprinkled between the fold.

"Myzithra," or, as it is more commonly called, "anari," is a soft cheese produced by boiling the whey, whereby all albuminoid substances not previously coagulated are now coagulated and rise to the surface together with any pieces of curd still remaining in the whey. A good quantity of fat is also enclosed in the coagulated mass, which is placed in rush moulds or in cloths and pressed so as to squeeze out the whey. "Anari" thus made is specially known as "bastard," and is an excellent soft cheese, very popular among the European residents as well as among the native inhabitants.

A rather finer "anari" with slightly different flavour is made by adding 5 to 10 per cent. of pure milk. This added milk is known as "prosgalo."

Both kinds are dried in the sun.

From "anari" is made a kind of fat used as cooking butter, by crushing and rubbing it between the hands in warm water. A thin paste is thus formed from which a fat separates, which rises to the surface, and is then collected.

_Paphos and Akanthou Cheeses._--These are prepared in much the same way as "halloumi," but are made in smaller, barrel-shaped moulds, and are steeped longer in the whey, which produces a rind and renders them tougher and less liable to crack. They are well rubbed with salt. Their characteristic flavour is doubtless due to some extent to the milk of those districts, as explained above. Owing to their small size they become very hard.

_Kefalotyri._--The best cheeses of this type are made with sheep's milk, which is coagulated at its natural temperature immediately after milking. Rennet is added so as to produce coagulation within an hour. The cheeses are placed in moulds, pressed and salted. They are turned and salted every day for a week; and this continues for two or three weeks, until the cheeses cannot absorb more salt.

_Fetta._--The process for making this cheese is much the same as for Paphos cheeses, but differs in regard to temperature. It is placed in bags and hung up, or left in cheese cloths on the table to drain. It is made up in 100 or 200 dram pieces, and turned and lightly salted for three days; then placed in barrels filled with brine. This cheese ripens in a few days. It is soft, and has a sharp, pungent flavour. It is the first to come on the market. It is not consumed in Cyprus, but made entirely for the Egyptian market, where it is much liked. Being soft, it does not keep well, and should always be kept covered in brine. For these reasons it is exported in small barrels of a gross weight of 40 to 50 okes. If care is taken in this respect, if all leaky barrels are kept refilled and cool storage provided, it may be preserved for a year; but these conditions are rarely fulfilled in Cyprus.

_Telemés._--This is another soft cheese, prepared in a similar manner to "fetta," but it is cut into square blocks and placed not in barrels or vats, but in tins which, when completely filled with cheese and brine, are soldered down. This cheese is also made entirely for the Egyptian market.

_Kaskaval or Kaskavalli._--This is mostly made by cheese-makers who come over from Greece or Turkey during the cheese-making season.

The curd, after the whey is drained off, is called "phlongos," and it is almost always bought from the shepherds, each shepherd preparing it in his own way. It is transported in baskets, sometimes a good distance, to the cheese factory, or "kassaria," and these drawbacks, added to lack of cleanliness, are the cause of much cheese of inferior quality being produced which has no keeping properties and must be quickly consumed.

Having reached a pasty condition, the cheese is placed in reed or willow baskets and immersed in either boiling whey or clean water and stirred until the whole mass is transformed into "kossimari"; it is then cut into pieces weighing one or two okes, and moulded by hand into a globular form, leaving one slight depression called the "omphalos" or navel. If not properly stored, this cheese soon dries and becomes rancid or tasteless.

_Agrafa Cheese._--This is made entirely from sheep's milk. Coagulation should be completed in 25 to 30 minutes. The cheese remains 20 hours in the press. Salting lasts from 40 to 60 days, and the cheeses ripen in four months. If well stored, the cheese may keep for two years.

_Butter_

Butter 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 butter. Goats' milk gives about 5 to 6 per cent. About half the above quantities may be obtained with the older, native churn.

In the Near East (Greece, Turkey, etc.) fresh butter is not used in cooking, as almost all cooked food is fried and butter 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 butter into hot water which heats the butter 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 butter, or the residue from the former process, into tin pans and boil until the water is evaporated, when the albuminoids 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 albuminoids 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 butter, 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 Devonshire 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 Devonshire 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 principal 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 Troödos, to an altitude 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.

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 prosôpon], _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 threshing-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 threshing. The threshing-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 tithe official. With the grain is also collected the sweepings of the threshing-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 Athalassa 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 threshing, one kilé 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 threshing 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 quantity of grain equivalent to the amount of seed so advanced, together with an addition of one-fourth of the quantity 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 tithe 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 kilés; barley, 31,479 kilés.

_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 kilés. For later years the figures are:

Year. Kilés.

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 kilé per donum. The average yield per donum is 6 to 10 kilés, and varies between 3 to 4 kilés 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 threshing machines. An immense quantity of grain is consumed by birds (larks, sparrows, doves, etc.), which at times literally strip the fields and continue their depredations on the threshing-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 threshing-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 tassels.

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 kilés to the donum, and may be expected to yield from 10 to 15 kilés; but 30 kilés 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.

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 tithe 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 Institute in 1914 proved to be of good malting quality, and similar material if marketed in commercial quantities would be readily saleable in the United Kingdom (see BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, vol. xii. 1914, p. 552).

A sample of naked or skinless barley from Cyprus has also been reported on by the Imperial Institute. 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 class 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 kilés. For later years the figures are:

Year. Kilés.

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 Limassol district.

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

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

Besides "Black Tartar," which has been regularly grown at Athalassa for several years, the Agricultural Department has introduced of late years "Black Cluster," "White Cluster" 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 INSTITUTE (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.