There Is A General Neglect In The
Cultivation Of Vegetables Which I Cannot Understand, As Agriculture Is
The Cypriote's Vocation;
It can hardly be called laziness, as they are
most industrious in their fields, and expend an immense amount of
Labour
in erecting stone walls to retain a small amount of soil wherever the
water-wash from a higher elevation brings with it a deposit. The
insignificant terraces thus formed by earth caught in its descent while
in solution appear disproportioned to the labour of their construction,
and the laborious system would suggest an extreme scarcity of land
suitable for agricultural operations. I believe this to be the case, and
that a serious mistake has been made in assuming that the Crown
possesses large areas of land that may eventually become of great value.
There are government lands, doubtless, of considerable extent, but I
question their agricultural importance, and whenever the ordnance-map of
the island shall be completed a wild confusion will be discovered in the
discrepancy of title-deeds with the amount of land in possession of the
owners. I have, whilst shooting in the wild tracts of scrub-covered
hills and mountains, frequently emerged upon clearings of considerable
extent, where the natives have captured a fertile plot and cleared it
for cultivation, far away from the eyes of all authorities.
I believe that squatting has been carried on for many years, as during
the Turkish administration a trifling annual present would have closed
the eyes of the never-too-zealous official who by such an oversight
could annually improve his pay.
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