CEREALS WHEAT 31 



This benefit is very generally availed of by smaller 

 cultivators. It has not, however, been found possible for 

 Government to keep separately the various kinds and 

 qualities of tithe corn, from which these advances are made, 

 and farmers frequently complain that the seed, so issued 

 promiscuously, is unsuitable to the land, aspect, or special 

 conditions on individual farms. Weevilled grain also is a 

 source of trouble, and farmers obtaining such seed advances 

 must be prepared to run risk of failure from this cause. 



It is a well-known fact that cultivators often sell their 

 seed corn so advanced them, in order to buy some other 

 corn known to them as more suited to their land, and 

 they are often justified, perhaps, in so doing. 



The issues are made by District Commissioners to 

 selected applicants who are believed to be unable to buy 

 seed for cash. The average annual issues, for the last five 

 years, have been: wheat, 38,013 kites ; barley, 31,479 

 kites. 



Wheat 



In ancient times, when the population numbered about 

 1,100,000, the Island was said to be self-supporting in the 

 matter of wheat. Taking the annual consumption of wheat 

 per head of population at 8 bushels (Gennadius's Report 

 on the Agriculture of Cyprus y Part I, p. 8) and after making 

 an allowance for seed, the annual production would then 

 have been about 10,000,000 bushels. From British 

 Consular Reports it appears that in 1863 the average 

 produce was reckoned at 640,000 bushels. The average 

 annual production of wheat for the ten years ended 1913, 

 as shown in Blue Book Returns, was 2,292,827 kites. For 

 later years the figures are : 



Year. Kites. 



1914 



1915 

 1916 

 1917 

 1918 



1,924,336 

 1,761,501 



1,524,484 

 1,782,800 

 2,424,570 



Wheat is sown at the rate of i kile per donum. The 

 average yield per donum is 6 to 10 kiles, and varies between 

 3 to 4 kiles on dry land in a poor year, to 16 to 20 on the 



