Give us
roads."
This is a first necessity, and it is simply ridiculous to preach reforms
of quality to the cultivators so long as the present savage country
remains roadless. It is the first duty of the government to open the
entire wine district by a carefully devised system of communication: for
which a highway rate could be established for repairs.
If this simple work shall be accomplished the goat-skins will disappear;
or should some cultivators cling to the ancient nuisance, a tax could be
levied specially upon wine skins, which would ensure their immediate
abolition. A new trade would at once be introduced to Cyprus in the
importation of staves for casks, and the necessary coopers. The huge
jars that are only suggestive of the "Forty Thieves" would be used as
water-tanks, and the wine would ripen in casks of several hundred
gallons, and be racked off by taps at successive intervals when clear.
The first deposit of tannin and fixed albumen would remain at the bottom
of No. 1 vat, the second deposit after racking in No. 2; and the wine
which is now an astringent, cloudy, and muddy mixture of impurities,
would leave the vine-grower's store bright, and fit for the merchant's
vats in Limasol, and command a more than double price. This is a matter
of certainty and not conjecture. Should the black wines be carefully
manufactured, they will be extensively used for mixing with thin French
wines, as they generally possess strength and body in large proportion
to their price.
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