Plate VII.
Fig. 1.—Cypriot Earthenware Beehives.
Fig. 2.—Shipping Fruit at Larnaca.
Of late years the Agricultural Department has introduced modern hives with movable frames, and had it not been for the high cost of timber since the war, the number of these would have increased rapidly. The difficulty is to get the local carpenters to construct them properly and with finish. Practical hive construction is taught at the Agricultural School.
Cyprian bees are, par excellence, the yellow race of the world. They are of uniform colour, size and character, slightly smaller than the Italians and the blacks. They have great power of flight, are very prolific and vigorous and good honey-gatherers. They are by many considered vicious and ill-tempered. This is possibly due to the constant war they have to wage against hornets, which in this country are a real plague and frequently exterminate whole colonies and sometimes whole apiaries. Various devices are employed for the protection of bees in or near the hives.
A good number of Cyprian queen bees have been imported into Europe and America, and are very highly regarded wherever they have been established. In the eighties Cyprian queens were sold in the United States of America at £2 each. This high price checked the importation and the crossing of Cyprians with Italians and blacks took place, the hybrid offspring being sold by dealers as Cyprians. These, however, did not possess the best characteristics of Cyprians, and for a time they brought about a reaction in favour of other breeds.
Cyprus possesses excellent honey-producing plants in the eucalyptus trees, orange groves, "throumbia" or wild thyme, and other aromatic plants.
In the neighbourhood of orange groves a competent bee-keeper can obtain an average of 50 lb. of honey per colony; although unfortunately the ordinary village bee-keeper gets little more than 6 to 10 lb.
Locally produced beeswax is of fine quality with delicious aroma and of a bright yellow colour, said to be superior to that imported from Asia Minor and Egypt.
The industry is susceptible of considerable development and, when brought under more complete control, should be capable of establishing a good export trade of honey and possibly of beeswax.
Basket-making
Basket-making is a considerable industry, as all fruit and much other produce is transported in baskets mostly designed for the backs of donkeys or mules. The export trade of fruit and vegetables creates a constant demand (see Plate VII, fig. 2). The bulk of these baskets are made of reeds (Arundo) which grow luxuriantly by the side of water channels or wherever moist soil is found. This material is not an ideal one for the purpose, as the baskets are easily crushed and lose shape, to the detriment of the contents. The reeds are therefore often stiffened by the introduction of an occasional breadth of some other material, e.g. shinia (Pistacia Lentiscus), tremithia or myrtle. All these are much used in basket-making, though the latter is heavy. There is a native willow (Salix alba) and also the weeping willow (S. babylonica). These have not been used until recently when, by the efforts of the Agricultural Department, a number of these trees have been pollarded and the new shoots have been found quite satisfactory for the purpose.
Six years ago a number of osier cuttings were imported from England, but unfortunately they have not succeeded so far owing to a succession of dry years. The surviving plants were this autumn removed to a more suitable site, but after suffering from drought they have now been almost destroyed by heavy floods.
In order to encourage the manufacture of better baskets for the fruit trade between Cyprus and Egypt the Agricultural Department provides practical instruction in basket-making, and a qualified teacher pays occasional visits to basket-making villages and demonstrates the work and teaches improved patterns to the villagers and school boys.
Fruit and Vegetable Preserving
There is little doubt that the establishment of small factories for canning or bottling fruits and vegetables would be a profitable undertaking. Owing to the suddenness with which, in the heat of summer, the fruits ripen in Cyprus, and the consequent glut that often ensues, market prices fall to a point at which it does not pay to pick and handle. Transport difficulties also make it precarious, in the case of soft fruits, to attempt a sale outside the immediate place of production. Increased cultivation is thus discouraged.
In growing fruits or vegetables for canning or bottling a man is independent of market fluctuations, whereas at present both producers and consumers are in the hands of the local shopkeepers, who have the former entirely at their mercy.
The Egyptian fruit and vegetable trade is very well worth cultivating, but until better measures can be enforced in the matter of transport by sea as well as land, shippers run the risk of heavy losses, which, no doubt, recoil upon the unlucky producers.
Specimens of most of the products referred to in these notes may be seen in the Cyprus Court in the Public Exhibition Galleries of the Imperial Institute.