In 1877
The Yield Was 13,500 Tons, And The Price Rose From 2 Pounds 13 Shillings
6 Pence To 3 Pounds 5 Shillings And At Length To 4 Pounds Per Ton, Free
On Board.
The average produce of a tree, taking the mean of all sizes, would be
about 84 lbs.
Or three-quarters of a hundredweight; allowing the mean
crop of five years to be 13,000 tons, this would give the number of
productive trees in Cyprus as 346,666, or in round numbers 350,000,
which, at eight trees to the acre = 43,750 acres of caroub-trees. I do
not think as a rule that a larger number than eight 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 not planted in order, but grow independently
and promiscuously, and are productive simply as originally wild trees
that have been grafted. Should Cyprus belong bona-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.
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