Gennadius regarded the cultivation of the vine in Cyprus as indisputably unprofitable, and was in favour of checking its extension, and even advocated the imposition of a special tax on new plantations. At the time he wrote there was an overproduction, and the value of wine had greatly fallen, and the revenue which Cypriot wine-makers could gain therefrom would hardly suffice to cover the expenses of its transport to the market, the annual interest on their debts, and the taxes they had to meet. The village-made wine is usually clarified by means of gypsum. It is carried down from the mountain villages in goat-skins (askos or ashia) on pack animals, and then sold to the Limassol merchants, who ship the greater part to Egypt. The production of wine as carried out in Cyprus leaves much to be desired. M. Mouillefert, who visited Cyprus in 1892 to report on the wine industry, says: "The vintage is often gathered too late. Insufficient care is given to the picking of the grapes and diseased, rotten, mildewy or unripe grapes are often used which detract from the quality of the wine. "The grapes are trodden and the fermentation takes place in jars and chatties of porous earth, of a capacity of 2 or 3 hectolitres, which are tarred inside to counteract their porosity. The houses in which the fermentation takes place are of almost the same temperature as the surrounding air, with the result that in the warmer parts of the Island fermentation at first is generally rapid or disturbed, and the temperature of the must becomes excessive. In the colder parts, on the contrary, the opposite takes place and the resulting wine is rough and sharp. The use of gypsum as a preservative is unfortunately very common. The tarring of the goat-skins and jars imparts a flavour which is very unsuited to the European taste." M. Mouillefert made the following recommendations: "Tarred jars for fermentation should be replaced by wooden vats, or, in the warmer parts of the Island, by tuns similar to those used throughout the South of France and in Algeria. Presses less primitive than those in use should be employed since these leave in the lees a very large quantity of wine. The wine when drawn off from the lees should be kept in tuns or in small wooden casks." "In short," he says, "to speak quite plainly, no good wine destined for ordinary consumption can be obtained with jars."