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. 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 village, with complaints upon an assumed
injustice connected with their water-supply. It was in vain that I
assured them of my unofficial capacity; they were determined to have
their say, and, according to their threat, to "TELEGRAPH TO VICTORIA,"
unless they could obtain redress. I referred them to Colonel Warren,
R.A., the chief commissioner of their district, who had already been
sufficiently perplexed with their case. It appeared that a stream
flowing from the mountains had nearly two centuries ago been diverted
into an artificial channel by the inhabitants of Kolossi and others for
the purpose of irrigating the various lands in succession, according to
the gradations of their levels. This water had become a right, and the
value of all lands thus irrigated had been appraised in proportion.
According to their story, some years ago a Greek who commanded capital
purchased an estate at Kolossi; and having made a journey to
Constantinople, where he remained for some years, he took the
opportunity of bribing some high officials to obtain for him an irade
from the Sultan, giving him the entire right to the water-supply, which
had for so great a length of time been the acknowledged property of the
neighbouring landholders. This irade was issued upon the plea that all
natural waters (i.e. streams) belong to the Sultan. A wide field for
litigation was thus opened, and the Greek, having more than the usual
allowance of "the wisdom of the serpent," lost no time in investing
large sums in the corruption of all those who would be summoned as local
witnesses whenever the case should be brought before the ordinary
tribunals. The result was that after great expense in the costs of
litigation, an appeal to the superior court during the British
administration had been favourable to the plaintiffs, and the Greek
proprietor was held to be legally in possession of all water-rights, to
the exclusion of the original owners. He, however offered to supply them
with water for their farms at a fixed rate; whereas they had hitherto
enjoyed that free right for upwards of a century. This loss, or
abstraction, of so important a supply, upon which the actual existence
of the farms depended in seasons of drought, not only impoverished the
cultivators during the present year of famine, but reduced the value of
their land to an enormous extent, as farms with a water-supply are worth
more than quadruple the price of those which are dependent upon the
seasons. Of course I could not help the poor people; it appeared to my
uneducated sense of equity to be the maximum of injustice. The question
hung upon the Sultan's right to the natural water-supply, which I
believe has been officially declared invalid; by what other right the
monopoly of the water had been conveyed away from the original
proprietors I could not understand. The Greek was not enjoying his
victory in absolute peace of mind, as the neighbouring farmers avenged
their legal defeat by cutting holes in the embankments of his
watercourses, and thereby nightly flooding their own fields, which, as
the channels extended for many miles, would have required the presence
of more than all the police of the district to discover the offenders.
Upon one occasion upwards of forty of these people appeared mounted upon
mules around my camp, to urge my intercession on their behalf, declaring
their perfect faith in the honour and good intentions of the English
authorities, but at the same time lamenting their ignorance of the
native language, which threw the entire power into the hands of the
dragomans (interpreters), of whose character they spoke in terms which
it is to be hoped were highly exaggerated. The people begged me to ride
over to the locality, to see with my own eyes the position of affairs;
which I arranged to do sine die, and after advising them to exercise a
temporary patience, I got rid of the deputation without suggesting "that
under the existing agrarian dispute they should let their farms to some
enterprising Irish tenants from Tipperary."
I mention this incident, which is one of many others upon the same
subject, to exhibit the complications that have always arisen from the
contention upon water-rights, that will require some special
legislation.
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