Much damage is also caused by rats (_Mus alexandrinus_), which gnaw the bark of the branches, causing them to dry up. Their destruction is encouraged by Government by the payment of 1 cp. per tail. Carob gathering commences about mid-August and lasts for about a month. The beans are knocked down with long sticks, put into sacks and brought into store, or heaped up in the open air, where they often remain for several weeks. This is a safe procedure, as there is little rainfall at that season, and what might fall would not harm the beans, which would quickly dry again. It is not easy to estimate the yield per donum of carob trees, but assuming that the trees were planted 30 ft. apart, and there were 16 medium-sized trees to the donum, the yield would average somewhere about 1,260 okes to the donum. The yield varies from year to year, a good year generally being followed by a moderate year. The fruit may be destroyed by frost in January and February, knocked off by hail-stones in March and April or scorched by hot winds in May or June. A full-sized, well-cultivated tree can give up to 720 okes. Taking good and bad years, the value of the annual produce of a medium-sized tree is 5_s_. Carobs are sold by the Aleppo cantar of 180 okes, and the normal price may be put at from 13_s._ to 17_s._ per cantar delivered into store. Carobs are weighed on export and the tithe is taken in money from exporters at the Customs House. The following table shows the export of carobs during the ten years ending 1913-14: Year. Quantity. Value. _Tons._ £ 1904-05 31,887 104,301 1905-06 26,187 85,105 1906-07 44,965 157,452 1907-08 42,381 151,610 1908-09 57,010 188,841 1909-10 44,059 157,972 1910-11 37,485 145,590 1911-12 51,359 182,883 1912-13 63,658 251,750 1913-14 44,989 179,027 The falling-off in 1913-14 was mainly due to the losses caused by the fly _Cecidomyia ceratoniæ_. The fruit of the carob is exported mostly to England, but also to France and Egypt, and more recently, before the war, to Germany. Gaudry mentions that about the middle of last century it was exported to Russia, Sardinia and Austria. Some is used, in Egypt and the Levant especially, as food for the poorer classes and for making sweets and sherbets. Its chief use in Western Europe is as food for animals, bovine and equine, for which purpose it is ground up and made into either meal or cattle cakes. It is also said to be employed in the manufacture of chocolate and spirit, and there is a demand for the seed for use in the manufacture of certain gums. The juice of the bean, "carob honey," locally called "mavromelos," "teratsomelo" or "betmezi," is consumed as a substitute for bee-honey or jam and also as a flavouring for culinary purposes. From the carob honey is also made the sweetmeat "pastelli."