ntain one or more yokes of oxen. Some of the draught
animals are very fine (see Plate III, fig. 1, and Plate V, fig. 1).
These belong mostly to the monasteries; one animal exhibited at a recent
show measured over 17 hands. The race is presumably the result of many
crossings with imported breeds, but has acquired a definite type. The
cows are in colour and conformation not unlike Jerseys, but larger and
without the udder development of that breed. The oxen have mostly a more
or less pronounced hump, possibly acquired through many generations of
progenitors used exclusively for draught purposes. In some of the best
bulls this hump is particularly marked.

In 1912 some Devon bulls and cows were imported and a herd of this breed
was started at the Government Farm, Athalassa. An impetus was thus given
to breeding dairy cows, and a number of half- and three-quarter-bred
cows are now to be found, which command high prices for milking
purposes. The Devon bulls, however, have never come into favour among
farmers for raising draught cattle.

There was a fair export of cattle to Egypt before the war, a good
proportion of the animals being consigned to the Serum Institute, Cairo,
as Cyprus cattle, alone among the cattle in this part of the Levant,
have so far been free from plague.

The number of horned cattle in 1917 is officially given as 48,761.

The exports for the five years preceding the war were:

Year. Number. Value.
L
1909 2,357 11,314
1910 4,240 20,218
1911 9,664 44,871
1912 5,751 34,303
1913 3,017 20,110

[Illustration: PLATE III.

Fig. 1.--Native Bull.

Fig. 2.--Native Ram.]

There can be no question that if more attention were paid to growing
fodder crops, cattle breeding could be greatly increased, and a good
trade with Egypt might be done.

The establishment of the Athalassa Stock Farm has had a most useful
influence on the improvement of the live stock of the Island.

Beef has only lately become an article of food for the country people,
and is still so only on a small scale. The townspeople, having become
Europeanised to a greater degree than formerly, are now becoming beef
consumers, and the high price of beef has had a stimulating effect upon
breeding for the butchers. Before the British occupation the killing of
an ox for eating purposes was considered by many villagers an act of
sacrilege.

_Sheep_

Sheep rearing is an important indust