94 NOTES ON AGRICULTURE IN CYPRUS 



these rather vexatious and irritating regulations were 

 enforced. 



For many years the tobacco imported by local cigarette 

 manufacturers came almost entirely from Macedonia. 

 This tobacco was of very superior quality and cheap, 

 and locally grown tobacco could not compete with it. Of 

 late years the price of Macedonian tobacco has risen con- 

 siderably and the manufacturers have therefore been 

 induced to import Thessalian tobacco instead, which is not 

 of so fine a flavour and approximates more closely to 

 Cyprus produce. Cypriot smokers have thus had their 

 palates prepared for the flavour of the locally grown 

 tobacco. 



About the year 1912, when Houry's Cyprus Tobacco 

 Association, Ltd., was formed, a revival in the industry set 

 in. This has since received considerable impetus from the 

 war, which, temporarily, has thrust Macedonian tobacco 

 out of the market. The primary object of the Association 

 was to manufacture tobacco and cigarettes from Cyprus- 

 grown tobacco, although foreign tobacco could also be 

 used. Tobacco then began to be regularly grown by the 

 Association at a Chiftlik near Limassol and elsewhere, 

 and cigarettes made therefrom have had a fair local sale. 

 The arrival of well-to-do refugees from Latakia and other 

 parts of Syria, skilled in tobacco cultivation, led to great 

 extension of this crop. A large part of the produce was 

 at first converted into Latakia tobacco. Owing possibly 

 to the lack of care and skill on the part of native labour, 

 partly perhaps to the unsuitability of the herbs and 

 brushwood used in the fuming, the market was not found 

 sufficiently encouraging and the Latakia, for which at best 

 there is a very restricted market, has almost ceased to be 

 produced. Tobacco for cigarettes, however, continues to 

 be grown on a fairly large scale, but in order that land 

 suitable for corn and other foodstuffs should not be sacri- 

 ficed to tobacco, the cultivation of the latter is permitted 

 only by special licence. In 1916 and 1917 the industry 

 fell almost entirely into the hands of the richer refugees, 

 who were expert growers, and they contracted with the 

 small farmers and peasants. A number of speculative 

 growers, professional men, merchants, etc., were tempted 



