34 NOTES ON AGRICULTURE IN CYPRUS 



These figures should be contrasted with British consular 

 estimated average in the sixties of 960,000 bushels. 



Oats 



In Cyprus, oats are used on a far smaller scale than 

 barley as food for cattle, and they are unknown, except 

 to a few townsfolk, as a food for human beings. 



The cultivation of this crop is restricted, partly because 

 it ripens late and needs late rains, and partly because it 

 sheds its ripe grain too quickly for the ordinary easy-going 

 farmer, who frequently finds his next year's crop 

 smothered with self-sown oats. It is also commonly held 

 that the crop exhausts the soil. 



There are two native varieties, both white. The one is 

 grown much more than the other, called " anoyira," which, 

 although incomparably superior, is little cultivated outside 

 the Limassol district. 



The seed is sown at the rate of 2 to 2\ kile*s to the 

 donum, and a yield of from 20 to 30 kill's is obtained. The 

 average annual production for the ten years ended 1913, 

 as shown by Blue Book returns, was 394,695 kiles. For 

 later years the figures are : 



Year. Kites. 



1914 



1915 

 1916 

 1917 

 1918 



404,917 



446,469 

 306,010 

 313,260 



Besides " Black Tartar," which has been regularly 

 grown at Athalassa for several years, the Agricultural 

 Department has introduced of late years " Black Cluster," 

 " White Cluster " and " Supreme." All these ripen late 

 and need late rains, and they have not given any promise 

 of success. A black variety imported from Greece some 

 years ago has proved much superior to the two native 

 varieties, but its cultivation is still limited. 



Reports on oats from Cyprus and on oat, straw and 

 kyko oat plant (Avena sativa var. obtusata) are given in the 

 BULLETIN OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE (vol. xv. I9 1 7> 

 pp. 308-10). 



