HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
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 179

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made, nor any control of nature is exercised by th fever-stricken population, who trust entirely to th uncertain chances of the seasons. W e have a: example in the original fens of Lincolnshire, which by a system of drainage, have been brought intì agricultural value; a series of large and deep ope ditches, such as are seen in every marsh or river-l meadow throughout England, would not only drain the surface of the Famagousta delta, but would supply the water, to be raised by cattle-lifts and windpumps, for the purposes of irrigation. There is much work for the agricultural engineer, but if this importan enterprise is seriously commenced the future results will well repay the outlay. Some persons have attributed the cause of un healthiness to the existence of the trenches made by the Turks during the siege in 1571, which are considered to emit malarious exhalations. I do not think so ; all these low levels, surrounded by high banks which protect the crops from wind, are most carefully cultivated with beans, cereals, cotton, and garden produce, and I do not believe that successful gardens are malarious, but only those localities where water is allowed to become stagnant, in which case cultivation 1 must be a failure. Many of these rich bottoms were at one time valuable as " madder " grounds, and Consul White states that in 1863 good madder-root land at Famagousta was worth £90 per acre. It may not be 1 generally known that the indelible dye called " Turkey red " was formerly produced from the madder-root, but that it has been entirely superseded by the chemicalI invention known as " alizarine, " which, by reducing the I price in a ruinous degree, has driven the vegetable substance out of the market, and the madder is no longer :

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