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 297

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; one foot above the ground, and two eyes are supposedto be left upon each spur. But I have watched the l cultivators during the process, and observed the usual! neglect ; sometimes the spurs were shaved off com-! pletely, without a bud for next year's shoot, and at i others too many buds were left, that would weaken f and disfigure the parent stem. The instrument for pruning was similar to a very small reaping-hook, with | a handle about a foot in length, and the delicate I operation was conducted with a rapidity that rendered! the necessary care impossible. After the clearing of f the refuse the land is carefully ploughed and cleaned. I visited some large wine-stores in Larnaca, where, casks of about 300 gallons each were arranged in long j parallel rows, all filled with commanderia of various ages and corresponding prices. Having now traced the liquor from the original ] vineyard into the merchant's store, it will be in-'j teresting to examine the network of obstructions and ! extortions to which the unfortunate wine-grower is* exposed before he can deliver his produce into the^ hands of the merchant, either at Limasol or elsewhere t1 Consul Riddell reported officially in 1875 asT follows :—. "The .wine trade of Cyprus was last year ex! ceptionally large, owing to the abundant produce of' the vineyards in 1874. The outcome of grapes and wines in 1875 did not exceed an ordinary average,* and growers still complain loudly that the imposts upon wines, reckoning from the grape to the vat, are so heavy—amounting to about 35 or 40 per cent.—and their imposition and collection so very arbitrary and unequal, that many vineyards are being abandoned. " The government, it is said, have under considera tion the anomalous state of the wine trade in Cyprus,

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