lU Agriculfural Gazptte of y.S.W. {Sept. 2, 1908. 



in deep basins about !) feet between cacb tree, and tbc water i-- di-^triliuted 

 from the main channels. For about five months they do nut need to use 

 water, but later on once a week, M7id when the crop is on the trees, twice a 

 week. Tliey c(juld not undei'stand how we could grow oranges anywhere 

 without i-egularly watering the trees, as they have little or no rain for six 

 months when the ci-op is ripening. 



All the ti-ees ar(» biidded in a very primitive mailnei-. but all t lie best oranges 

 and pomegranates are grown in this district. They are (piite as large anfl 

 well favoured as any of th(^ Jaffa oranges tliat come into the market at 

 Constantinople, and besides the long oval form there is a large hemispherical 

 one just as fine. The Commissioner told me that it was the oranges from 

 this place that took the first prize in London at the show. 



Though Mr. Saracomenos told me that fruit fly was a common pest in these 

 orchards, the growers did not seem to think nuich about it. The "disease," 

 as they call it, that did an immense amount of damage to their trees, and is 

 still very bad, is our common Red Scale {Af<j>ldiofns auranfi). This scale 

 is very common all over the Cyprus gardens, attacking roses, and I even found 

 it on wattles. They are now painting the tree trunks with lime wash, and 

 do a little spraying after seeing the I'esults of experiments by the Department 

 of Agriculture ; but, as one orchardist said, " The Good God sent it, He will 

 take it away," and this is the attitude of both Greek and Turk in the East. 



In 1906 there were 8,431.217 oranges ex))orted from Cyprus, chieflv to 

 Egypt, valued at £6,056 ; while in the same year 42,374 cwt. of pomegranates, 

 valued at £8,107, were exported. 



A good many mulberries are grown in some disti'icts, and the Department 

 has encouraged the growing of silkworms by seeing that all the seed (eggs) 

 imported is pure ; most of this is sold in the cocoon, but a certain amount is 

 made into native silk with hand-looms in Nicosia. 



I left Cyprus for Port >Said at midnight on the 15tli, and reached there 

 early on Sunday morning, 17th, catching the train up to Cairo at 8 a.m., and 

 reaching the latter place at 2 o'clock. 



I went round fii-st thing the next morning to the offices of the Khedivial 

 Agi'icultural Society, where I met Mr. F. C. Willcocks, Entomologist to the 

 Society, Mr. Balls, Botanist, and Mr. Hughes, Chemist. This is a private 

 society, but is supplemented with a sum of money from tlie Govei-mnent to 

 pay the salaries of the officers, who ha\'e well-fitted laboratoi'ies and an 

 experiment garden, where experiments on breeding cotton are carried on in 

 conjunction with other crops. I went through their collection, and also over 

 their plots, when we called upon .Mi. lUown, in charge of the Gardens of 

 the School of Agriculture, a separate institution, the Dii-ector of which 

 (Dr. Fletcher) I met on the following day. 



The worst enemy of the cotton all over Egypt is the Bollwcnni {Eur las 

 insulana), which lays its eggs upon the surface of the small boll, and the 

 young caterpillars bunow and dcimage it, so that it falls off and never reaches 

 maturity, much after the same fashion that the larv;e of the American boll 

 weevil does in the United States. 



