But including the cost of constructing the numerous water-channels of
clay to conduct the stream to the desired fields, together with the
expense of erecting the reservoirs of masonry upon a sufficient scale, I
should raise the original outlay for irrigation by cattle-wheels to 20
shillings per acre (1 pound). This would include the services of a pair
of oxen for other work when the sakyeeah should not be required.* (*The
wheel I have described is double the power of those in general use in
Cyprus, where a single animal works the sakyeeah, and it would irrigate
a larger acreage.) According to this calculation, which exceeds by a
large margin the figures given to me by several native farmers, the
owner of a hundred acres must only expend 100 pounds to ensure his
annual crops! To us this appears nothing, but to the Cypriote it is
everything. Where is he to obtain one hundred pounds? To him the sum is
enormous and overpowering.
In times of scarcity, which unfortunately are the general conditions of
the country, owing to the deficiency of rain, the farmer must borrow
money not only for the current expenses of his employment, but for the
bare sustenance of his family; he has recourse to the usurer, and
henceforth becomes his slave. The rate of interest may be anything that
can be imagined when extortion acts upon one side while poverty and
absolute famine are the petitioners.
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