16 NOTES ON AGRICULTURE IN CYPRUS 



vigilantly kept under control they would quickly multiply 

 and become a serious danger. 



LIVE STOCK 



Cattle 



The cattle of the country have been bred, until the last 

 two or three years, exclusively for draught purposes. 

 Cattle breeding as a business is unknown. Farmers, as a 

 rule, aim only at raising a calf or two every year in order to 

 maintain one or more yokes of oxen. Some of the draught 

 animals are very fine (see Plate III, fig. i, and Plate V, 

 fig. i ). These belong mostly to the monasteries ; one animal 

 exhibited at a recent show measured over 17 hands. The 

 race is presumably the result of many crossings with 

 imported breeds, but has acquired a definite type. The 

 cows are in colour and conformation not unlike Jerseys, 

 but larger and without the udder development of that 

 breed. The oxen have mostly a more or less pronounced 

 hump, possibly acquired through many generations of 

 progenitors used exclusively for draught purposes. In 

 some of the best bulls this hump is particularly marked. 



In 1912 some Devon bulls and cows were imported and 

 a herd of this breed was started at the Government Farm, 

 Athalassa. An impetus was thus given to breeding dairy 

 cows, and a number of half- and three-quarter-bred cows are 

 now to be found, which command high prices for milking 

 purposes. The Devon bulls, however, have never come 

 into favour among farmers for raising draught cattle. 



There was a fair export of cattle to Egypt before the 

 war, a good proportion of the animals being consigned to 

 the Serum Institute, Cairo, as Cyprus cattle, alone among 

 the cattle in this part of the Levant, have so far been free 

 from plague. 



The number of horned cattle in 1917 is officially given 

 as 48,761. 



The exports for the five years preceding the war were : 



Year. Number. Value. 



f. 



1909 . 



1910 . 

 Z9II . 



1912 . 



1913 



2,357 n,3i4 



4,240 20,218 



9,664 44,871 



5.751 34,303 



3,017 20,110 



