Fig. 2.—Threshing Corn with Native Threshing 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 εις το πρὁσωπον, 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 (δουκἁνι or δουκἁναις) 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.