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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 313

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give the number of productive trees in Cyprus asj| 346,666, or in round numbers 350,000, which, at eight! trees to the acre = 43,750 acres of caroub-trees. II do not think as a rule that a larger number than eighti trees are to be found upon an acre, as it is the custom] to cultivate cereals upon the same ground, therefore^ the caroubs are thinly planted. This calculation " cannot be accepted as exhibiting the actual position, of the trees, as a very large proportion are noe planted in order, but grow independently and promiscuously, and are productive simply as originally wild trees that have been grafted. Should Cyprus belong bonâ-fide to England, machinery for crushing and pressing the locust-beans will be established on the spot, which, by compressing the bulk, will reduce. " the freight' and materially lessen the price when delivered in' England. In travelling through Cyprus: nothing strikes the observation of the traveller more forcibly than the neglect of tree-planting. The caroub is an indigenous production volunteering its services to man, and producing an important revenue ; there are immense tracts of land which by their rocky nature are unfit for the general purposes of husbandry, at the same time the rich soil in the interstices is' eminently adapted for the cultivation of the caroub. Such lands are at the present moment abandoned to a growth of jungle, among which this irrepressible tree dominates all other vegetation, but in its wild state remains unproductive. The neighbourhood of Limasol is for many miles richly ornamented by these welcome shade-producers, and presents an example of what other portions of the island might become. During my stay at Limasol I was several times invaded by a crowd of people from a neighbouring

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