236 
Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
Scarcely one-fifteenth of the arable land is xinder cultivation, and in addition 
to this large amount of unproducing soil, it must be added tliat that portion of 
the ground which is under cultivation docs not produce one-half of its capacity. 
At one time the island supported a population of two millions of inhabitants, 
and was also at the same time a large exporter of grain. It is startling to 
observe that last year the island was obliged to import largely to support a 
population of only two hundred thousands. 
The chief products of the island arc wheat, barley, cotton, silk, linseed, 
sesame, madder-roots, and grapes. 
The wheat pioduced in the island is a small-grained hard wheat, with 
many of the qualities of the Eussian wheats, but brought to market largelj'' 
mixed with earth and other extraneous substances, which depreciate it in the 
British market. 
The barley is much superior to that of Egypt. 
The price of land in the island depends greatly upon its proximity to a town. 
Good cotton land, near Larnaca, commands from 9s. to 2.5s. per acre of rental ; 
but in the interior, where the finest lands are to be got, the rental varies from 
3s. to 10s. The cost of cultivation, including manure, amounts to about 21. 10s, 
per acre ; and if the calculation be made, those figures will show apparently 
fabulous returns. 
Madder-roots. — This root is one of considerable importance in British trade ; 
it is a cultivation of great nicety and profit to the agriculturist. The three 
chief places of cultivation are Famagousta, Morfa, and Trene. The finest 
quality of root comes from the two latter, and in Fi-ance they are esteemed 
above Smyrna roots. At Famagousta, an acre of madder-root land sometimes 
obtains tlie high price of 607., while at Morfa and Trene, solely from their 
interior situation and want of population, land which produces a finer root 
commands only from 8/. to 10/. per acre. 
The population of the island in ancient times was 2,000,000 ; at present it 
is 200,000, of whom more than two-thirds are Greeks, and the remainder 
Turks. The yearly increase of the population is not much, and entirely 
confined to the Greeks. "When it is said that the popidatiun represents one 
soul to every fifteen acres of arable land, the great depopulation of the island 
will be sadly apparent. 
The country is level, and transport easy. 
The rivers of Cyprus are mostly mere mountain torrents, whose beds are dry 
in summer : none of them are navigable. In summer they exhibit only dry and 
stony beds ; after the spring and winter rains they rush with violence down 
the sides of the mountains, cai'rying with them and depositing on the plains, 
which they inundate below, a rich alluvial earth, which fattens the soil, and to 
much of which its fertility is due. 
The pine is almost the only tree useful for construction that grows in 
any quantity in Cyprus. Extensive pine forests exist in the higher mountains, 
especially in Troodos ; some of the trees are of considerable size, but there are 
no roads by which large timber may be transjwrted to the shore. The forests 
are wantonly thinned by the peasants, who frequently fire them. There is nO' 
kind of provision for the preservation of the forests, a circumstance which is 
very much to be regretted, owing to the great scarcity of trees generally in the 
island. Cyprus is known to have been well wooded in ancient times, when it 
was probably more healthy and productive than at present. The want of trees 
is very much felt, and the dryness and aridity of the soil are doubtless owing 
to the groat lack of trees, whose presence would be invaluable as a means 
of attracting rains to the earth. 
The Cyproits are of a quiet and inoffensive disposition ; they are sociable and 
hospitable, and remarkably fond of pleasure ; but they are naturally lazy 
and given to idleness. They waste much of their time in their caf^s, and are 
great frequenters of the fairs, which are held at short intervals in different 
