The varieties locally grown include plants producing large, medium and small-sized seed. Trial cultivations are being made to ascertain their relative values. It is found that a heavier yield of better quality is usually obtained where the plant is treated as an annual and not as a perennial. Four samples of castor seed examined at the Imperial Institute were found to contain normal amounts of oil, and similar seed would be readily saleable in the United Kingdom if offered in commercial quantities (see Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, vol. xvii. 1919, p. 492).
Fibres
Cotton
During the time of the Venetian occupation (1489-1570) Cyprus exported annually from seven to fifteen million pounds of raw cotton. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the English Levant Company sent large quantities from Cyprus to England. When the scarcity of cotton occasioned by the American Civil War gave a stimulus to its growth Cyprus took part in meeting the demand, and in 1866 over 2,000,000 lb. were exported. Since then the production has declined. In former times, then, the production of Cyprus cotton must have been very large, as cotton manufactures in the Island were, as in most cotton-producing countries in the East at that period, both considerable and of choice quality. Cyprus was always distinguished for its cotton spinning. Gennadius suggests that the Karpas, which is one of the centres of the Cyprus cotton manufacture, derived its name from the ancient "karpasos," a fine cotton cloth which came from India. There is an old Hebrew word "karpas" found in the Old Testament, and derived from the Sanscrit "karpasa," cotton, or "karpasum," cotton cloth.
During the Turkish Administration cotton cultivation declined, owing to the destruction of aqueducts, Venetian wells, etc., and to the practice of taxing the cotton crop in the field before it was picked—a cause of considerable delay and detriment to the crop. Careless cultivation and consequent deterioration of the fibre as well as the general fall in value contributed to the decay of the industry. Taxing the crop in the field was abandoned in 1890, and a tithe was levied on exported cotton only (Handbook of Cyprus).
The species of cotton principally cultivated in the Island is Gossypium herbaceum. American "New Orleans" seed was introduced some twenty years or so ago, and this has now largely displaced the original native kind; in fact the native kind has almost entirely disappeared, and what little is grown is mostly used for stuffing the native bed-quilt or "paploma."
Cotton grown without irrigation is known as "dry" cotton. It is grown chiefly in the Messaorian plain and in the Karpas; it is harsh to the touch and short in staple, but of satisfactory colour. "Wet" cotton is grown on irrigated land; it is usually of larger staple and of finer quality than the "dry" cotton and commands a higher price. This is grown mainly round about Kythrea, Nisou, Dali, Lapithos and in the Solea valley. Native cotton is always grown "dry"; the ordinary American variety is grown both "wet" and "dry."
The Karpas cotton, which is "dry" grown, is inferior not only on account of its shorter staple, but on account of the method of picking. In some places of Messaoria, at Dali, Nisou, etc., the "dry" and sometimes the "wet" cotton is picked in the morning before the dew has quite evaporated, and it is picked direct from the growing plant. But the most general practice is for the villagers to cut the bolls early in the morning before the dew is evaporated (πορνἡ), transport them to the houses and then remove the lint at their leisure. In this way the bolls are more or less crushed and the lint when removed contains a mixture of husk, leaves, etc.
In the case of native and other varieties the lint of which adheres to the boll, the husks, leaves, etc., are removed from the bolls in the following way: The bolls are spread out on mats to dry in the sun; when sufficiently dry the bolls are put in a rotary sieve made of reeds and sticks, similar in make to the ordinary reed baskets of the country. Each end of the sieve is closed, but it has an opening in the middle, about 1 by 1½ to 2 ft., which is closed by a small reed mat. The sieve is about 5 to 6 ft. long and 2 to 2½ ft. in diameter. The bolls are dropped into the sieve through the opening and it is then revolved by hand by means of an axle which passes through it longitudinally. By this means most of the crushed husks and leaves fall through the interstices of the sieve.
The native seed is usually grown on dry lands as it withstands drought. The "wet" cotton is mostly of the American variety.