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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 ihat are only suggestive of the " Forty Thieves " Pwould 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, iwould 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. ' It will be universally agreed that the making of the roads is the first necessity ; but if the island is in such financial misery that so important a step must be deferred, the grievances of the vine-growers should be immediately considered. The first question to the cultivator would be, " What reforms do you yourself suggest ? " He replies, " Fix an annual rate per donum, and leave us free to send our wine wherever υ 2

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