Historic, archived document

Do not assume content reflects current
scientific knowledge, policies, or practices.

= ed - i A “ = : = ol
5 -

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
‘BUREAU OF PLANT- INDUSTRY—BULLETIN No. 54.

B. T GALLOWAY, Chief of Bureau.

PiMnRolLAN GULF DATES
AND THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA.

BY

DAVID G. FAIRCHILD, AcricutturaL EXPLoreEr.

i

~

SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.

IssuED DEcEMBER 19, 1903.

wae
il
mille

it

HN

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1903.

BULLETINS OF THE BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY.

The Bureau of Plant Industry, w hich was etconianl July 1, 1901, Praia Vege-
table Pathological and Physiological Inv estigations, Botaniedl fae estigations and
Experiments, Grass and Forage Plant Investigations, Pomologieal Investigations, and
Experimental Gardens and Grounds, all of which were formerly separate Divisions,
and also Seed and Plant Introduction and Distribution, the Arlington Experimental
Farm, Tea Culture Investigations, and Domestic Sugar Investigations.

Beginning with the date of organization of the Bureau, the several series of Bulle-
tins of the various Divisions were discontinued, and all are now published as one
series of the Bureau. A list of the Bulletins issued in the present series follows.

Attention is directed to the fact that ‘‘the serial, scientific, and technical publica-
tions of the United States Department of Agriculture are not for general distribution.
All copies not required for official use are by law turned over to the Superintendent
of Documents, who is empowered to sell them at cost.’? All applications for such
publications should, therefore, be made to the Superintendent, of Documents, Union
Building, Washington, D. C.

No. 1. The Relation of Lime and Magnesia to Plant Growth. I. Liming of Soils
~ from a Physiological Standpoint. II. Experimental Study of the Relation.
of Lime and Magnesia to Plant Growth. 1901. Price, 10 cents.
2. Spermatogenesis and Fecundation of Zamia. 1901. Price, 20 cents.
Macaroni Wheats. 1901. Price, 20 cents.
4. Range Improvement in Arizona. (Cooperative Experiments with the
Arizona Experiment Station.) 1902. Price, 10 cents.
5. Seeds and Plants Imported Through the Section of Seed and Plant Intro- .
duction. Inventory No. 9, Nos. 4351-5500. 1902. Price, 10 cents.
6. A List of American Varieties of Peppers. 1902. Price, 10 cents.
7. The Algerian Durum Wheats: A Classified List, with Descriptions. 1902.
Price, 15 cents.
8. A Collection of Economic and Other Fungi Prepared for Distribution. 1902. /
Price, 10 cents.
9. The North American Species of Spartina. 1902. Price, 10 cents,
10. Records of Seed Distribution and Cooperative Experiments with Grasses and
Forage Plants. 1902. Price, 10 cents.
11. Johnson Grass: Report of Investigations Made During ihe Season of 1901.
1902. Price, 10 cents.
12. Stock Ranges of Northwestern California: Notes on the Grasses and Forage
Plants and Range Conditions. 1902, Price, 15 cents. fo
13. Experiments in Range Srapray ement in Central Texas. 1902. Price, 10
cents. :
14. The Decay of Timber and Methods of Preventing It. 1902. Price, 55 cents.
15. Forage Conditions on the Northern Border of the Great Basin. 1902. Price,
15 cents.
16. A Preliminary Study of the Germination of the Spores of Agaricus Campes-
tris and Other Basidiomycetous Fungi. 1902. — Price, 10 cents.
17. Some. Diseases of the Cowpea: I. The Wilt Disease of the Cowpea and Its >
Control. II. A Cowpea Resistant to Root Knot ee oe at
1902. Price, 10 cents.
18. Observations on the Mosaic Disease of Tobacco. 1902. “Price, 15 cents.
19. Kentucky Bluegrass Seed: Harvesting, Curing, and Cleaning. 1902. Price,
10 cents.
20. Manufacture of Semolina and Macaroni. 1902. Price, 15 cents.

[Continued on page 3 of coyer.]

se

Bul. 54, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE |.

Fila. 1.—CANAL THROUGH DATE PLANTATION AT BASSORAH.

wet

Fig. 2.—NeEW DATE PLANTATION, SHOWING IRRIGATION DITCHES.

Fig. 3.—AT THE BORDER OF IRRIGATION; PATCHES OF ALFALFA.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY—BULLETIN No. 54.

B. T. GALLOWAY, Chief of Bureau.

fee oleeN GULE DATES
AND THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA.

BY

DAVID G. FAIRCHILD, AcricutturaL ExpLorer.

SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

Issu—ED DEcEMBER 19, 1903.

ids

ah

-
bak

ill

oa
h Pap \

= We = he
CBE
Ke aes efi COMAER oe
HEF: 5 aS a
Nn EES
SISSESSS

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
£905.

BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY.

Brver.y T. Gatuoway, Chief of Bureau.

SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.
SCIENTIFIC STAFF.

A. J. Prerers, Botanist in Charge.

W. W. Tracy, Sr., Special Agent.

S. A. Knapp, Special Agent.

Davin G. FarrcuiLp, Agricultural Explorer.
JoHn HE. W. Tracy, Expert.

GEORGE W. OLIVER, Expert.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
BurREAU OF PLant INpDUSTRY,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF,
Washington, D. C., October 17, 1903.

Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith and to recommend for
publication as Bulletin No. 54 of the series of this Bureau the accom-
panying paper entitled ** Persian Gulf Dates and Their Introduction
into America.”

This paper was prepared by Mr. D. G. Fairchild, Agricultural
Explorer, and has been submitted by the Botanist in Charge of Seed
and Plant Introduction and Distribution with a view to publication.

The information contained in this bulletin and a collection of young
date palms which were imported and are now growing in the Govern-
ment date orchards in Arizona form another of the many generous
gifts which Mr. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago, has made to the Ameri-
can people.

The four half-tone plates are essential for the purposes of this
bulletin.

Respectfully, B. T. GaLLoway,

Chief of Bureau.
Hon. James WIxson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

PRI AACGaE

The importance of introducing the commercial culture of the date
palm into Arizona and California led to the establishment of the coop-
erative date orchard at Tempe, Ariz., where already more varieties
of this palm are gathered together than are to be found in any other
one place in the world. To the original orchard additions have been
made from time to time, one of the most important being the collec-
tion of Persian varieties presented to the Department of Agriculture
by Mr. Barbour Lathrop and described in the present bulletin. For-
tunately, many of the suckers sent from Persia are alive and will in
time enable the Department to distribute the best of these varieties in
suitable regions of our arid Southwest.

Mr. Fairchild’s statements regarding the manner in which the Per-
sian dates are packed furnishes an additional incentive for pushing
the work of introduction, so that the home market may be supplied
with clean, wholesome dates.

In securing much of the information which is contained in this bul-
letin and in the procuring of the young date palms Mr. Fairchild is
indebted to the American vice-consul, Mr. A. Mackirdy, of Maskat,
Mr. Rudolf Hiirner, vice-consul, of Bagdad, Mr. O. Gaskin, British
vice-consul, of Bahrein, and especially for unusual courtesies and aid
to Mr. H. P. Chalk, of Bassorah.

A. J. PIETERS,
Botanist in Charge.
OFFICE OF BOTANIST IN CHARGE OF SEED
AND PLANT INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION,
Washington, D. C., September 17, 1903.

Page
TS Toe De Se ee ee egg ee ees Ane ee 7
Soe et Te NEA Oe Le Pein se ee ee on ea eee 8
IS Si SRE SS ee gece ire eee ee 9
ene in Nene neRBeTIED Ss Sr 8 2s oS ee ee eee 11
ee ES SE ei Se eS eae Ee ene eRe eeu e s 13
nn a nmMaMs 22.5 029k. Tl. oe S52 oe tee i4
Secondary calturce between the palms -:_.-_. ..--.-.----2-. 22. .2--2~--2--.- 19
Treatment of the soil and planting of young palms--.--..-.---------.-------- 19
Snes re ae es ee ian oe wk os ae ee ee ae 20
0 EEE Se Se EB a ey en a rar a Ta 21
ane RNC AR eee og oh ee te one Dae eee 22
pI eps Soci ee ee eee eek Oe ee ee ee 22
oS ELE SEES DRS SIS RIE a Sg gt SS 22
ee ene ee Se So Ne pes Sao se Ee eEEA 22
CRN ee ee ee Eee ee a oe aa Bits 22
gees eran Oey rts eee ee eS et ee ee oe SEE 3
Din ee en as, 95 Ne en eS ee aol eee: ke ee 23
YSU eek. Seeet te oe ee ees ces a ee ee eee a 23
eC nine Cornet weg cig Ae rR oe sy ee ee 23
Lo SOUL Se a 2 ee eee eee a 23
WW LE Lg beets oe ge Se Oe eS ee | reps a 24
we dy SE OS ee 2 Ee ee ee ee ee os ee 24
eerie ena peace 2 ere ee 7 te Tents Pe Se A ee 24
a Ere y eaten eee ee ra te Oe es 24
Seeee ee enree ee RAMIEMENE ors een ees ee ry Se ae 24
2) Sis Ses rel ae aS Sk ee ee Eee See coe ee 24
SE fe ies peg a Ses Et ee ee 25
eure una Ramee resets eee ant ee ete Sou oe te tee et 25
eReereR eee WERERER es cent Ss Se 25
Sire ee etree naitre ta oe aee ee ak! e e 25
un Siar UREIS Re WRETOANE re are et ein eS wae 25
CNAME OM By rg eee ores 28 Se oe oe a oan a on eee 25
eee eee en he See eee Ped ere oe Ns Ou shee eee nna oe eme 25
apne ee a ie eee re ee | 2 oS ee eee eee eee yar. 26
Pe Pe oe ee eet se pce eet 8 ok 2 26
Pract se A a Fi, Te eA ce Ne Ne ee aes 26
sae a ee Big Sa ie eis tee a SRE Ee ae Sah ee 26
CRP ESET Se ee Beas re a See» oy Pa Oe aS, i 26
eee nee Na tee Pee tere arnt Oe TE ek oe 26
nine Went nC m=) 5 BS oa eels - Fe eee 27
EE SD SE ee eee eee ee) oh ae ee ee a 27
eee eae MERC RAE OTE po 2 28 ee Re keg ease connd 28
Tee seen nies Joe be So ee Se le 29

Wo TI US Eg ee es ee a ee 3
OR cee SS Ee ae ae 32

Puate I.

10¢

JOO

JAW

IEW Se INES.

~ Page.
Fig. 1.—Canal through date plantation at Bassorah. Fig. 2.—New
date plantation, showing irrigation ditches. Fig. 3.—At the
border olinrigation: spatclesion alia ial e see eee ae Frontispiece.
Fig. 1.—Old date garden at Bagdad. Fig. 2.—Irrigation ditches in
new plantation at Bassorah. Fig. 3.—Village and date palms on
the: old! Bassoralcanalistc 25 se ajcetn, Boia eh a ace errata 32
Fig. 1.—A bag of Maskat dates. Fig. 2.—Typical date plantation
at Bassorah. Fig. 3.—Bassorah peasant with his spade -.....-.-- 32
Fig. 1.—Panorama of new date plantation near Bassorah. Fig. 2.—
Irrigation machines at work on the Tigris River, near Bagdad.
Fig. 3.—Intake of irrigation canal above Bassorah; Turkish
guardhousevom the lett (ise ys Ee aia ace ape nnn Ae Se Seles a 32
6
»

B. P. I.—74. S. P. I. D.—38.

PERSIAN GULF DATES AND THEIR INTRODUCTION
INTO AMERICA.

INTRODUCTION.

The valley of the Euphrates is said to be the birthplace of the date
palm. Whether this is true or not, it is certain that nowhere else In
the world are more favorable conditions for the cultivation of the date
to be found than along the shores of the Persian Gulf and in Lower
Mesopotamia.

The Persian Gulf date region is doubtless the largest in the world
and furnishes the greatest part of all the dates sold in the American
markets. Two million cases, or over a hundred million pounds of
dates, have been exported ina single year from the principal shipping
port; and at a very moderate estimate—for no even approximate data
are obtainable—there must be not less than fifteen to twenty million
date palms in this great territory.

The date plantations of Biskra, in the Sahara, contain little over
half a million palms, according to Swingle,” while the immense region
comprising Upper and Lower Egypt together is estimated by Will-
cocks” to have only 7,400,000 date palms in cultivation. Moroccan
and Spanish gardens are insignificant in comparison with these great
regions, and no one connected date area can compare in size with the
plantations which extend for 70 miles in an unbroken forest from
below Mohammerah to above Kurna, on the Shat-el-Arab River.
This strip of forest varies in width from less than a mile to over 3
miles, and more than 5,000,000 trees, it is estimated, are packed into it.
There is certainly nothing comparable to it in the world, either as
regards size or the ease with which it can be irrigated.

Date growing in Arizona is rapidly passing the experimental stage.
The fact that this fruit could be grown there, however, was first called
to the attention of the public by the success of a number of chance
seedlings which bore good crops of fine fruit. The seeds from which

@Swingle, W. T. The Date Palm and its Culture. In Yearbook of Department
of Agriculture for 1900, p. 461.
5 Willcocks, W. Egyptian Irrigation, 1899, pp. 17-18.

8 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

these seedlings were raised came probably from Persian Gulf dates,
since these are the most common ones in our markets. The excellence
of the fruit from these seedlings and the fact that they ripened early
made it seem probable that the Persian Gulf dates, as a class, might
prove upon investigation to ripen earlier than those of North Africa,
and therefore be better suited to the short, hot seasons in Arizona.

The stickiness of the dates from Mesopotamia, as sold in this coun-
try, is perhaps a disadvantage which they have in comparison with
the African sorts, but it was thought that American date firms might
not wish to import the best varieties and that there might be found
under cultivation along the coast of the Persian Gulf superior early-
ripening sorts of which nothing is now known in the United States.

The consideration of these possibilities decided Mr. Barbour Lathrop
to send the writer up the Persian Gulf to Bagdad to look for the best
and earliest varieties of dates and to secure such information regard-
ing their culture as might be obtainable. The object of this short
bulletin, therefore, is to make available to those interested in date
culture the information, more or less fragmentary, which was secured
during a brief stay in Bassorah and Bagdad and stops of a few hours
at ports on the Persian Gulf.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION.

The Persian Gulf, like the Red Sea, is a body of unusvally salty
water, surrounded by stretches of desert sand and barren hills and
cliffs. Its waters are shallow and easily and often ruffled by storms,
making landing on the shelving beaches sometimes difficult and danger-
ous. Its eastern shore is formed by the rocky coast of Persia, while
the deserts of Arabia constitute its western coast. The Gulf of Oman
is separated from the Persian Gulf by a narrow strait, south of which
hes the Sultanate of Maskat, with its dependent province of Guadur
on the opposite side of the gulf.

The Shat-el-Arab River is formed by the union of the Tigris and
Euphrates at Kurna, where, according to the Arabs, the garden of
Eden was located. It flows south for 70 miles and empties into the
northern end of the Gulf of Persia, forming a shallow bar which must
be crossed at flood tide by even shallow-draft vessels.

The Persian Gulf is politically controlled by Great Britain, whose
officials settle petty intertribal disputes between the natives and push
the interests of British trade by increasing the communication facilities
of the waterways. Turkey nominally governs Arabia, but practically
controls little territory south of the Shat-el-Arab River, while the Shah
of Persia has jurisdiction over the whole eastern coast of the gulf,
and the Sultan of Maskat, under the eye of Great Britain, manages
the affairs of his Sultanate and of his dependency of Guadur.

DESCRIPTION AND CLIMATE OF REGION. 9

Developments in this region have until recently been very slow, but
those who read the signs of the times there foresee some interesting
changes in the near future.

There are several ways in which the Persian Gulf region may be
visited: By comfortable steamers of the British India Line from Bom-
bay, which run weekly and form the easiest and quickest approach;
by caravan from Damascus, in fourteen days, to Bagdad; by carriage
from Trebizond to Mosul and down the Tigris (on a raft of inflated
sheepskins) to Bagdad; via Teheran and Ispahan on mule back to
Bushire or Bagdad; or by the Anglo-Arabian and Persian Steamship
Company, of Leadenhall street, London, which keeps up a fairly good
service to and from the gulf. This company runs steamers at least
once a month, and frequently semimonthly, stopping at Port Said,
Suez, and Aden.

The Turkish quarantine regulations at Bassorah require of all pas-
sengers on boats from India ten days’ quarantine, while only five are
demanded of this Anglo-Arabian Company coming direct from Europe.
The easiest way, therefore, to reach the gulf will be to join one of this
company’s boats at Port Said, Suez, or Aden. Returning, one can take
a boat of the British India Line to Bombay, if he desires to call at any
of the ports on the coast, which are closed by quarantine to boats going
up to Bassorah but open to all steamers returning from there.

CLIMATE.

The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are among the hottest
regions in the world. Maskat, while not as warm as Jacobabad, is
so hot that the thermometer registers 117° to 120° F. in the shade, and
for nights and days the temperature has been known to remain some-
where about 110° F. The sea water in the harbor, as taken for the
ship’s engines, was registered on the log of the steamer as 96° F., and
the eight Europeans who live in the place, in order to make sleep a
possibility, resort to the use of special machines, like fanning mills,
which force a draft of air through a perpetually wet screen. As high
as 124° F. in the shade is recorded for the river Shat-el-Arab by the
**Persian Gulf Pilot.” The Europeans spend as much time as possi-
ble during the day in darkened, lower-story rooms, and the nights on
the flat roofs of the houses. Nor is the heat by any means always a dry
one, but it is often muggy and oppressively moist. The winters are as
delightful, with their bright sunshine and cool breezes, as southern
California. The rainfall is about 6 inches, according to Mr. Mac-
kirdy, United States vice-consul, and occurs in the spring months.
No rains fall during the principal date harvest in August and Septem-
ber, which are at the same time the hottest months. Owing to this
long, excessive heat at Maskat the dates ripen earlier than they do
farther north.

10 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

At Bahrein (the pear! islands), on the Arabian side of the Gulf,
Rey. S. M. Zwemer, who has the self-registering thermometer of the
Indian weather service, describes March, April, October, November,
and December as ‘‘ delightful,” with indoor temperatures seldom above

85° F. or below 60° F. January and February are colder, even cold.

enough for a fire, and in these two months the rain of the season
usually falls. The months from May to September form the hot
season, and during this period heavy night dews are common and the
thermometer often remains above 100° F. for many days and nights
together. The minimum temperature in the village of Menamah,
Bahrein, during the summer months of 1893 was 85° and the maximum
107° F. in the shade.

In Bassorah, near the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, the climate is
similar to that of Bahrein, with the exception that the winters are
colder-—so cold, in fact, that a grate fire is necessary for comfort.
Such delicate plants as tropical guavas are injured by the low
temperature.

Bagdad is still some distance from the northern limit of date culture,
and yet frosts are of frequent occurrence. Temperatures of 17° and
even 12° F. it is understood have been observed, though not by official
weather observers. The summers are cooler than at most places on
the gulf, and shortly after sunset the rapid radiation from the desert
which surrounds the town lowers the temperature appreciably. Judg-
ing from the glare upon the light-brown soil in the winter season and
from the precautions which it is necessary for travelers to take in
crossing the deserts, the insolation to which the date palms are sub-
jected in Mesopotamia must be something extraordinary. No figures
regarding the force of the sun’s rays, however, were obtainable.

From Mr. Willcocks’s paper, cited later, the following tables are
taken:

Meteorological observations at Bagdad.

1894

1888
Noatht | Ks Temperature. | eae erak | Temperature : | Rainfall.
| Mean Mean | | ,) | Mean | Mean peel
maximum.) minimum. | Misia afoul: maximum. minimum, | BEEN. | HON
_ =| | | | |
OF. OFF: Inches. Inches. | cy Ha aah oo DS | Inches.| Inches.
YATRA (ee socgoasascel 62.5 41.1 49.9 0.1 55.5 37.1 | 46.3 1.5
Hebruanyeeeeeeeoeee | 68. 1 47 54. 9 2.4 61.5 Ad |) 228 7.9
Mien C lie wis, trae Mares 74. 2 51.7 60.5 8 69.3 50.4 | 59.8 4.4
NG Op a0 LEAs ater Raney ee 81 58. 7 68.8 Dall 76. 2 | 58.9 67.5 2.5
Mey 5 satay eeeeeae et = 94.1 70. 2 80.1 a it | 69.9 OSD) Neeaccace
Yun enews ore yes | 102.2 76.9 Pon llisacasriam | 100.3 76.9 Sou" leenseouc
SUNY, is alert cersrstaree ceeste 109. 3 80. 2 O25 One aecesee | 105.3 78.5 OTe as Ber cere
AUP UISt oe eee | 106.3 78.6 QONOT | Reteeaee 106.7 79.3 OB), Nacsa
September. .-....-.- 103.4 72.8 hb Ur Sddcooer 100. 3 70. 5 85740 ese
Octoberz aes eseee | 100. 2 OS nee Sal Wek a eee 90 61. 2 75.6 a
Novembensasceeees 74.8 48.3 57.3 ils 2 (nab 55. 1 63.6 4,8
Decemberseeees sere 60.8 | 42.3 | 49.1 5 61.5 | 44.8 | 53.2 Ht
IMICHT ee eee 87.9 G14b petra ae om 82.5 60.5 | 71 29,2

|
|
{
|
|
|
|
i]
|
|

——=—-

CLIMATE AND LOCATION. 1%

Meteorological observations at Bagdad—Continued.

1899 1900
Month. ibws. eames Rainfall. if ere ee at Meesacuen
Mean Mean Mean Mean

Mean. Total. | Mean. | Total.

maximum. minimum. maximum. minimum.

ei ie i Inches. Inches. OOF: On: Inches. | Inches.
APU 5 ee ee 58.7 | 38.8 48.8 | 0.3 60. 4 39.5 49.9 0.4
Meprusry..- +22 2S 67.2 | 43.2 5p. 2 | a 66. 4 45.9 56.1 iP
Marche < t32 ve 73.5 49 61.3 5 ET 53. 7 63.3 1
tN Tack eet eer ae eee 87 61.3 74.2 3 85.8 | 61.7 Fhe eee 5"
pf ee eee eee 96.7 | 68.9 2:8 282 het 93.3 66. 2 12:9 |e oe
i Diag en eee eae 104.5 | 76.5 U5 al eae =e 103.5 | 73.8 88:7. (sees
S71 a ee See 110.5 | 79.5 LT ee eee 108.2 | 77 92.6) 1s ee
PIPER oe 3 oS i 79.4 PEE ie ES aes Se 108. 6 76.1 OA ea ae
September = ...-.--- 107.3 } 73.2 | LSS) ee eee a 105.1 | “A. Si, eees2.te
Wetoner sc. =! Fs o> 92.5 | 64.2 78.4 ma! 93.2 65. 4 W955: |e oe seen
November: = == >2=. 72.3 47.9 60. 1 i 71.8 49.2 60.5 | 1.7
Decamber=. =. a = 58.3 39 48.9 1g) 64.5 44.8 54.7 | 1.4
Mean <2: -=-= 86.7 60.1 73.4 3.6 | 86.1 60.4 73.4 | 5.7
1901 1902
Mauth Temperature. Rainfall. Temperature. Rainfall.
| Mean Mean Mean Mean

Mean. Total. Mean. Total.

/mMaximum. minimum. maximum. minimum.

:. Inches. oF, oF. Inches. | Inches

OF,

oO
y
S
5
>
a
vA

, es.
aT hn iene een i eae a7 38. 2 47.6 0.5 62. 36.9 49.5 0.2
Kebruary.. 2-2-2. 79.1 47.2 i eg eee 73.7 47.6 60.6 -4
bots Cl LN ean Senn ae 82 54.7 68. 4 3 (ety d1.3 62.3 1.8
(Tr! be 3 89.3 61.6 75.4 2 $4.3 60. 2 (eae: 1.9
terse ar 8 95.1 67.2 $1.2 re 99.6 71.9 S527, lesen ees
1 Uhr ee Sates ae 108. 8 78.2 tee Ge eee 107.4 76.9 O22 eae. ee
eS ae 113.5 80.5 Die ae eee el owe we a a eles ok Pe ee ee
peti AES oo SE 113.1 80.9 Sie i ees Sota eo eee See tet Se Pee ee
September .........- 108 74.6 TR ae eed eee Rams De SPM Saas PNET op Sy Wig ef
Oetabers 2: F64535-: | 93.8 63.2 UE ay Gee ee Ae ee py BO es oo ae eee
November .......-.. 78.9 54.2 66.9 eR Se fe See a AT Ca ye
December........-.- | 68.3 43.1 55.7 Be PRA ee Aenea fee ete ee
Pen 124245 4.45 90. 2 62 74.5 1.5

LOCATION OF THE DATE GARDENS.

Although the Arab knows more about dates than he does about any
other plant, since it is his principal food, his knowledge is generally
very local, and it is difficult to obtain accurate information regarding
the extent of the date plantations along the gulf.

It is probable that small gardens are to be found almost anywhere
on the coast where the water necessary for cultivation is obtainable,
but there are several principal regions from which the dates are
exported or have otherwise become well known. How large they are
is, however, the subject of conjecture.

The Pangh Ghur region, lying thirteen days’ caravan ride inland
from the port of Guadur, on the Gulf of Oman, is in the Mekran ter-
ritory of Baluchistan. According to Lieut. W. O. Grant, of the
First Baluchistan Light Infantry, who recently took an expedition
into the country and to whom the writer is indebted for much yalu-
able information, the plantations in this region are of considerable
size, including hundreds of thousands of trees; but the natives export

19 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

into Kurrachee and other parts of India only small quantities of dates.
Among them, however, is one of the finest in the world, called the
‘* Mozaty,” which is packed in date sirup in small earthen jars and is
sold as a great delicacy on the Kurrachee market. Little is known
about the other varieties of this region, except that they are reported
to ripen very early, even as early as June. A guard is necessary in
order to visit the region, as the inhabitants are quite uncivilized and are
continually at war with each other.” Maskat itself has few palms in
its immediate vicinity, but some 50 miles in the interior, at Semail, at
least half a million trees are said to be under cultivation, while along
the Batna cost is a region which, according to Vice-Consul Mackirdy,
is 60 miles long and a half mile wide and is packed with date palms.
These two areas are believed by Mr. Mackirdy, who is an old resident
in Maskat, to nearly equal in size those of Bassorah and Mohammerah.
They furnish 1,000 tons of dates for export to America and the total
yearly export from Maskat is estimated roughly at 30,000 tons, which
is second only to Bassorah in amount. Maskat has the largest date
export from the gulf to Indian and other Asiatic ports. Owing to its
southern latitude and excessive heat the dates of Maskat ripen earlier
(some of them in June) than those farther north.

Back of Jask, which lies on the opposite coast of the Gulf of Oman,
large gardens of dates are said to exist, but about the place itself
scarcely a palm is to be seen, and the surroundings of the latter are
almost a complete desert. Six days’ camel ride into the interior, at a
place called Bashkala, some especially fine varieties are grown and,
according to Mr. G. W. Mongavin, of the Indo-European telegraph
department, who was stationed for some years at Jask, the dates from
this region are the finest he has ever tasted. How extensive the orchards
are isunknown. Forty miles from Bunder Abbas, on the Persian coast,
are the plantations of Minab, which are almost as large, it is said, as
those of Bassorah and Mohammerah. These are the plantations which
furnish the dates for consumption on the Persian Gulf, and, in the pick-
ing season, which is in June and July, the inhabitants of many small
villages along the coast migrate to Minab, where dates are much
cheaper than at home, to live for several months. The varieties, in
part similar to those of Maskat and Bassorah, are inferior in flavor
and keeping quality. Those tasted, late in the season it is true, had
decidedly harsh skins, and were inferior in every way to any of the
good Bassorah sorts.

The town of Lingah, in Persia, which owing to the quarantine
restrictions was seen only from the steamer, is fringed with date

«The native servant, whom Lieutenant Grant was kind enough to dispatch to
Pangh Ghur in search of palms for the expedition, was turned back at Kej, some
seven days’ caravan journey from the former place, but luckily secured at Kej palm
shoots, which the chief of the place reports are of the Pangh Ghur variety ‘‘ Mozaty.”’

LOCATION OF GARDENS. Ls

palms, but it was not learned that any fruits were exported or that
any considerable area was planted to dates. The people of Lingah are
said to obtain most of their dates from Minab.

Bahrein Island, noted as the center of the pearl fisheries of the
eulf, has itself a half-million date palms planted on it, but they are not
much more than enough to supply local gulf demands, neither are they
of superior quality. The region of Hassa, however, 69 miles inland,
has extensive plantations and produces one of the most delicious dates
of this part of the world, called the ** Khalasa of Hassa.” Zwemer,
in his ‘*Arabia, the Cradle of Islam,” remarks that the Hassa date
‘region is not comparably as large as that of Bassorah, but he does
not tell how extensive it really is. Probably a million trees would be
a fair estimate.

Bushire has few date palms about it, but the districts of Tangistan
and Koweis, not far off, have plantations of considerable size, it was
stated by an old resident of the place. Three or four hundred tons of
dry dates are exported annually to India from this port.

Of the date gardens of Koweit nothing was learned, but they are
probably inconsiderable in size.

Mohammerah and Bassorah, although 30 miles apart and on opposite
sides of the Shat-el-Arab which separates Persia from Arabia, really
belong to the same general district and are the centers for export of
the largest single date-producing region in the world. Although no
count has ever been made, there are probably over five or six mil-
lion paJms planted along the banks of the river, and as seen from the
bridge of a steamer the waving crowns of these tall palms stretch
away in every direction to the horizon. (PI. Il, fig. 1.) In reality,
the strip of land occupied by them is from less than a mile to 3 or 4
miles wide and 70 miles long, with occasional rice fields or neglected
areas.

At various places along the Tigris and Euphrates, which rivers run
almost parallel to each other across the broad, slightly inclined plain
of Mesopotamia, there are date plantations varying in size from a few
trees to hundreds of acres. About Bagdad, 535 miles from Bassorah,
and at Hillah, on the Euphrates, a day’s journey by camel from Bagdad,
there are extensive groves of dates—over a million trees in the two
places—and numerous superlative sorts are produced here, such asthe
‘** Kustawi,” ‘* Maktum,” ‘‘Taberzal,” ete. Owing to the fact that
there is little export to restrict the number of varieties which may be
planted for profit, there are probably more different kinds to be found
_ about Bagdad than anywhere else in the Persian Gulf region.

SOIL CONDITIONS.

The date loves a slightly alkaline soil and can thrive where enough.
salt is present to kill most ordinary plants. It finds in the countries

14 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

around the Persian Gulf all degrees of saltiness. The writer was
unable to obtain good samples of the soil from all of the noted date
regions about the gulf but examined a sufficient number to satisfy him-
self of its variability. In Bassorah there is an adobe soil, resembling
the silt of the Nile Valley, so sticky that it has only to be dried in the
sun to make the best of adobe bricks. This pure adobe is not con-
sidered as suitable a soil as that which has a slight admixture of sand
in it to make it lighter. Though undoubtedly a fine soil, this alluvium
can not be compared with the rich river bottoms of the Missouri,
Kansas, and Mississippi, and is able to produce no such crops of maize
or wheat. The soil of Bagdad resembles that of Bassorah closely,
being made up of the same alluvial deposits from the Tigris River.
Not astone the size of a man’s fist can be found by searching for hours
across the plains about Bagdad, and the broken antique pottery, tiles,
and bricks attest the character of the fine-grained soil of which these
millions of acres are composed. It is the very soil of which Babylon
was built, and which when baked has so well preserved for later
generations the cuneiform language of the Babylonians.

IRRIGATION OF THE PLANTATIONS.

Nowhere in the world does such an ideal water supply exist for the
irrigation of date plantations as at Bassorah. A broad, muddy river,
flowing at a rate varying from 0.4 mile to 6 miles an hour between
banks which are so low that the Arabs sit upon them and wash their
hands in the stream (Pl. IV, fig. 3), supplies an almost unlimited
quantity of water. With each high tide the waters of the river are
backed up for about 70 miles and rise on an average at Bassorah 6 feet
above their former level, filling on both banks the hundreds of irrigat-
ing canals which run in every direction for many miles through the
date forests. The height of the river at Bassorah changes little, sum-
mer or winter, though its level at Bagdad, 535 miles away, falls
materially during the dry summer months. A strong southerly wind,
if blowing up river for some time, will, together with the rising tide
on the bar, raise the level of the water a foot or more over its natural
high tidal mark.

Occasional large canals extend for more than 23 miles into the desert
at right angles to the river and give off numerous side canals. These
mains are navigable by large steam launches and form the avenues by
which dates are transported to the steamers that lie in the river during
the shipping season. These large canals, planted for their whole
length with palms, are in fact like rivers through a great forest of
dates. The land is so level that apparently no engineering difficulty
lies in the way of an immense extension of this canal system so as to
take in thousands of square miles of this rich alluvial desert which
stretches away to the horizon from the comparatively narrow strip of

IRRIGATION. 15

already utilized land fringing the river banks. The writer followed
up one of the main canals and reached the end of the irrigation ditches
to find, on the very border of the desert, luxuriant patches of alfalfa
and fine looking 10-year-old date palms. (See PI. I, fig.3.) The Arabs
are gradually, but very slowly, lengthening the canals and watering
more desert every year. <A great impetus was given to date culture
in Mesopotamia by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. This
brought the European and American markets within easy reach by
water, and enabled the growers to get their dates to London and New
York in time for the autumn market, avoiding the expense and delays
of their transportation by camel across the desert. Large areas of
palms which were planted at that time are now in the prime of their
productiveness.

The method of planting is determined by the irrigating ditches,
which are large (often 3 feet by 3 feet) and cut the ground up into
small rectangular peninsulas, 10 to 15 by 20 to 30 feet in size. (PI. J,
fig. 2, and Pl. II, fig. 2.) On each peninsula 2, or sometimes 3, palms
are set. (Pl. VII, fig. 1.) Often the peninsulas are much larger and
hold from 4 to 5 and even as high as 10 palms. The size of these
peninsulas depends somewhat upon the permeability of the soil and
the height to which the irrigation water rises in the ditches. On an
average 100 palms are planted to a **djerib,” which unit of measure is a
trifle less than an acre. In order to prevent the waters receding too
quickly from the canals when the tide falls, dams of mud are built,
and pipes, or the hollow trunks of palms, are run through them, which
permit the water forced into the canals by the rising tide to flow away
slowly. The length of time during which the canals are filled with
water is more or less under the control of the proprietor, and as the
supply is practically unlimited no tax of any kind is paid nor is any regu-
lation necessary regarding its use. In short, the Bassorah date grower
has only to see that his ditches are kept in order, which is an easy
matter where the soil is as pure adobe as the clay of a brickyard and
the backwater of the river will fill and empty them twice every twenty-
four hours. The conditions of this form of irrigation, which might
be called a tidal one, are quite ideal and so far as known are found
on such a scale nowhere else in the world. Professor Hilgard, of the
California Experiment Station, says that the waters of the Sacramento
River are being utilized in a similar way, but on no such scale. With
the proper extension of the canals on both sides of the river an area
covering several million acres could, it is believed, be planted to dates
and the Bassorah region might then supply the dates of the world.

Conditions in Bagdad are quite different. The banks of the Tigris
are high, often 20 feet or more, and even at its highest level the water
never flows into the irrigating canals, but must be lifted laboriously
by means of contrivances of Babylonian antiquity, called ‘‘chirds.”

16 PERSIAN GULE DATES.

These are composed of a set of pulleys, a bullock-skin bag holding 20
to 40 gallons, and a rope attached to a horse or bullock, which walks
laboriously up and down a steep dirt incline, hoisting the water as
it descends and lowering the bag into the river as it backs up the
declivity. (Pl. IV, fig. 2.) None of our unpicturesque but practical
Yankee windmills, with their ugly shapes, has vet invaded the banks
of the Tigris, although during the spring season, when the water is
most required, strong, steady breezes are almost constantly blowing.
Once lifted intc small, shallow reservoirs, the water is led off by
trenches and manipulated in the usual way, giving each palm a periodic
watering by filling its particular trench.

What the irrigation conditions in this region were when Babylon
was a great city and the whole country was as thickly populated as
Egypt is to-day can be judged by a study of the remarkable ruins of
the great canals and dams which are to be found in this now desolate
country.

Sir William Willcocks, K. C. M. G., whose name is so well known
from his remarkable work on the Assuan dam in Egypt, has recently
made a study of the old canal system of Chaldea and has drawn a most
vivid picture of the irrigation system of ancient Babylon.“ He shows
how favorably it compared with the system of ancient Egypt, and
points out in the following words the cause of the destruction of its
greatest canal, the Nahrawan, and the consequent widespread desola-
tion which was produced:

What was the real cause of the ruin of all this agricultural wealth and these great
cities, and the creation of the vast deserts which we see to-day? An examination of
the map will make it evident. Those who have seen the headworks of the Ganges
Canal at Hardwar in northern India, where the rubble weirs across the shingly bed
of the Ganges lead the stream past Hardwar into the Ganges Canal above the steep
bluffs of Kankhal, will readily understand what I amgoingto say. Letsuch imagine
what wou!d be the fate of the great Ganges Canal if the Ganges River were to desert
the Hardwar channel, flow down the Budh Ganga, and then turning abruptly west-
ward eat away the Kankhal bluffs until the canal was cut into by the river. It
would mean ruin to the whole canal with its 500 kilometers of main channels and
3,500 kilometers of minor channels. Such a fate has overtaken the Nahrawan Canal.

The Tigris has a mean width of under 400 meters, according to information kindly
supplied me by M. Moritz, librarian of the Khedivial Library at Cairo, while the
lower heads of the Nahrawdén Canal have a mean width of about 100 meters each,
according to the plans of Commander Felix Jones. To insure the supply of this
great canal we are, moreover, informed that the Tigris has constructed across its
ancient bed, downstream of the intake of these feeder canals, massive rubble weirs.
To me it seems conclusive that, in Chaldea’s evil day, the main stream of the Tigris
deserted its ancient bed, followed the scoured and degraded bed of the canal whose
regulating head had been swept away, and cut out a new channel for itself at right
angles to its old course. A careful examination of the plans and levels can lead to
no other conclusion. Once the river had changed its course, the old bed gradually

a Willcocks, Sir William. The Restoration of the Ancient Irrigation Works on the
Tigris. Cairo, National Printing Department, 1903.

IRRIGATION. Li

silted up, the river ate away the feeder canal at the site of the regulator whose ruins
to-day are in the bed of the river, and again ate away the main Nahrawan itself
between the seventieth and eightieth kilometers. The ruin was complete. Feeble
hands did what they could to repair the disaster. The Beldai dam across the Dyala
was strengthened and the head of the Nahrawan Canal was removed to its one hun-
dred and fifty-second kilometer. The feeble supplies of the Dydla River could alone
be depended on, the Tigris gave no aid from its ample waters, and a once flourish-
ing and world-renowned region became a desert. The ruin on the west bank was
equally great. The weirs which had held up the waters of the Tigris in order to
feed the canals were turned and the mighty canals dwindled away into the feeble
water courses of to-day. Commander Felix Jones well observes: ‘‘The summit of
Opis, as we gaze around, affords a picture of wreck that could scarcely be conceived
if it were not spread at the feet of the beholder. Close to us are the dismembered
walls of the great city, and many other mounds of adjacent edifices spread like islands
over the vast plain, which is as bare of vegetation as a snow tract and smooth and
glass-like asa calm sea. This appearance of the country denotes that some sudden
and overwhelming mass of water must have prostrated everything in its way, while
the Tigris, as it anciently flowed, is seen to have left its channel and to have taken
its present course through the most flourishing portion of the district, severing in its
mad career the neck of the great Nahrawan artery, and spreading devastation over
the whole district around. Towns, villages, and canals, men, animals, and cultiva-
tion must thus have been engulfed in a moment, but the immediate loss was doubtless
small compared with the misery and gloom that followed. The whole region for
a space of 420 kilometers, averaging about 30 kilometers in breadth, was dependent
on the conduit for water, and contained a population so dense, if we may judge
irom the ruins and the great works traversing it in its whole extent, that no spot on
the globe perhaps could excel it.’’

Of those who were spared to witness the sad effects of the disaster, thousands,
perhaps millions, had to fly to the banks of the Tigris for the immediate preservation
of life, as the region at once became a desert where before were animation and
prosperity. The ruin of the Nahrawén is indeed the great blow the country has
received. Its severity must have created universal stupor, and was doubtless fol-
lowed by pestilence and famine of unmitigated rigor, owing to the marshes which
_accumulated annually in the absence of the dams on each spring rise of the river.

It is interesting to read what the trained imagination of Mr. Will-
cocks foresees will be the result of the restoration of these ancient
irrigation works on the Tigris and his entirely preliminary estimate
of the expense necessary to restore them. An outlay on canals and
repairs of £8,000,000, he figures, will throw over a million and a
quarter acres under cultivation, raise the value of the land which is
now worthless to $150 per acre, and pay a profit in rentals of 25 per
cent per annum on the investment of $40,000,000.

On page 17 of the volume cited Mr. Willcocks remarks:

To enable a true estimate to be made of the exact nature of the works and their
cost, there lies much information to be collected by brigades of engineers working
under a capable chief—such information as only experts can gather through months
of patient observation and field work—exact gauge readings of the Tigris, Antheim,
and Dydla rivers; discharge diagrams; analyses of the waters of the rivers; field
maps of the soils; contoured maps of the country on which to lay down the align-
ments of the canals, and the dimensions of the cross-drainage works; soundings of
the rivers and borings of their beds; examination of the building materials available

9533—No. 54—03——2

18 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

to enable designs to be made of regulators and escapes, weirs and locks, syphons and
superpassages, and all the details which accompany a well-conceived project. Such:
works it will take a couple of years to collect; but I have not considered it unwise,
with the aid of experience and prescience acquired in a lifetime of devotion to
irrigation works, to make a rough preliminary estimate of what such works would
cost and what would be their probable results, so as to encourage capital to pay for
the collection of that detailed information whose outlines I have just described.

The area of first-class land, waiting only for water to yield at once a handsome
return, I estimate as follows:

Acres

West*oitthe old Tigris'. oa. ceca 3 yteeoer: Ce Ns Sica nay ce ae 280, 000
Bebween theroldiand mew, auionig yee ee nee ee ae ae 160, 000
Hast.ot the Mens north of (Bagdadee ss.) sea eee ee eee 420, 000
Kast of theMions sot ht ols iS toca cl sys mee re eer 420, 000

I, omen deep th | AO een Se een NPS Sauh He UN eed ay NS Eh 1, 280, 000

The cost of the works, discounting all assets, I estimate roughly as follows:

Main canal, 200 kilometers by 500 square meters......-. cubic meters. - 100, 000, 000
Marth work, main 7Canal: oo. Sook 8S Sie See es eo eer es en ge £2, 000, 000
Wieirsson=the Pieris2 2.22 S285 ik ee eee ee ge 600, 000
Masonry works, main canal, one-half the earthwork...............--- 1, 000, 000
Minor: canals, 1280;000:acres ate£3s per acre). ee ee eee 3, 840, 000

AO eae see ee LAS et NR ea oR ey ~ 7, 440, 000
AAV cOMbIMe EN CLES Fo. Ue dys EA eee ee ee eee ogee 560, 000

Grand: totalin: 5) oon wee ete cee ro tee ne ee ae ee eee 8, 000, 000
@ost per’acre: (£8,000; 000) 2S OOOO) eae ee aay an
Walue or the land Gh 280s000 acres sat, £30)p ee ae ee ee ee 38, 400, 000
Rent peranmumys (280 000actres ait od) ee see es 3, 840, 000

If of this sum nearly half is spent in maintenance of the canals, we have a net
return of £2,000,000 per annum, or 25 per cent on £8,000,000 of capital. Let those
who know Egypt say whether they consider such figures as too sanguine.

The date region of the island of Bahrein is watered by several most
remarkable springs, the fresh water of which must reach the island by
submarine water courses. The largest of these springs is 100 feet
across and 27 feet deep, and flows a 2-mile-an-hour stream, with a cross
section of 2 by 8 feet, or about 16,000 gallons per minute. This spring
alone waters, the British vice-consul, Mr. Gaskin, states, about.a half
million date palms and if completely utilized could water almost as
many more. |

In Hassa, on the mainland, tnere are underground water courses,
and the date palms which furnish the famous Khalasa date probably
get their water from these underground sources. Zwemer describes
vast areas in this region, now quite destitute of vegetation, where 3 or
4 feet below the surface an abundance of sweet water 1s obtainable.@

The river Lowadi flows through Minab, and the plantations of this
date region are irrigated by it, according to the statement of a resident
of Bunder Abbas, the nearest port.

aZwemer, S. M. Arabia, the Cradle of Islam. New York, 1901, p. 112.

SECONDARY CULTURES. ETC. 19

The method of irrigation used in the Pangh Ghur region, where the
famous Mozaty date is grown, must be most peculiar, for, according to
Lieutenant Grant, the system of canals is largely subterranean, and
innumerable wells tap these underground water courses, which are
tunneled through the soil at great expense. The levels are so carefully
studied that land which is apparently, though not really, at a higher
elevation than the supply well is furnished with water.

SECONDARY CULTURES BETWEEN THE PALMS.

One may look in vain for a cover crop in use in the date plantations.
The use of leguminous plants to enrich the soil seems to be unknown,
and although alfalfa (called ** djet”) is grown in diminutive patches to
furnish food for the horses, the fellah, or Arab cultivator, is generally
ignorant of its value for enriching the soil. Wheat and barley are
often sown among the palms, but furnish an inferior product. (PI. I,
fig. 2, and Pl. IV, fig. 1.) The planting of grapevines has been most
successful in Bassorah, and the palm stems form quite as admirable sup-
ports between which to train the vines as do the trunks of the mul-
berry trees in the groves of Italy and the Tyrol. The light shade
furnished by the trunks and crowns of the palms appears to be none
too much to protect the vines from the excessive glare and heat of the
sun, and most excellent table sorts of grapes are produced. Other
fruit trees, such as figs, jujubes, and pomegranates, are also frequently
seen about the houses, and thrive very well. Altogether, however,
there is a barrenness about these palm forests which reminds one of
the Australian bush.

TREATMENT OF THE SOIL AND PLANTING OF YOUNG PALMS.

Though pure silt, like that of the Nile Valley, the soil on the Shat-
el-Arab is manured to make it more productive and, whether rightly
or wrongly, only cow manure is considered suitable, that from the
horse stables being regarded as too heating. Such things as artificial
fertilizers are quite too modern for Arabia, and the value of wood
ashes and bone dust is scarcely appreciated.

Just before a plantation is set out with suckers the soil is dug over
by hand to a depth of 18 inches, and this digging is repeated every
four years. Weeding is done when necessary and the surface of the
ground occasionally stirred, but aside from this primary treatment the
soil is given very little attention.

In the matter of propagation the Arabs of Mesopotamia are more
advanced than the Egyptians, for they have learned the practical
advantage of employing small suckers. These are seldom over 6 feet
long and generally with few roots. They are planted with the growing

20 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

bud 2 or 3 inches above the surface of the soil, and for the first month
are watered every four days, and later at longer intervals, as the season
may demand.

There are thousands of seedlings called ‘‘degal,” but these form a
small proportion of the plantations and are recognized as bearing infe-
rior dates. The market demand is for special uniform qualities, and
these seedling dates are excluded because of their variability. A curi-
ous belief exists that date seeds, if immersed for a few seconds in
water heated to nearly the boiling point before planting, will produce
a much larger percentage of female trees than when planted in the
ordinary way.

POLLINATION.

The dates were in flower in the middle of March at Mohammerah,
and at Bahrein hundreds of female blossoms which had been already
tied up with the sprig of male inflorescence inside were seen. Instead
of tying about the female inflorescence a thin strip of palm leaf, as is
done in Egypt and Algiers, the upper part was wrapped with a piece
of the brown fibrous material which grows between the leaf and the
trunk of the date palm. A single male tree yields sufficient pollen to
fertilize the flowers of one hundred female trees, but there are espe-
cially productive male varieties whose pollen is more abundant, power-
ful, and has better keeping qualities than others. The names of three
of these, as given by Mr. Raphael Sayegh, of Bassorah, to whom the
writer is indebted for some valuable information, are: ‘**Gunnami”
(S. P. 1. 8749%), ‘‘ Wardi,” and ‘‘Semaismi.” Of these three, the first,
‘*Gunnami,” is considered the best, and is the only one which the old
veteran date grower and buyer, Hadji Abdulla Negem, of Abu Kassib,
would recommend for planting. At Maskat, or the date valley of
Semail, in the interior, a special variety of male is planted, but so far
as could be learned it has no name except that of ** Fachl” (5, P. IL
8761%, which means ‘‘ male.” In the region back of Guadur, called
Kej, the male variety in use is called ‘‘Gush” (8. P. L 8763%. As
young male plants of the best variety in each locality have been secured
for introduction, it will be interesting to learn which sort will thrive
best in America. |

Whether or not the method of pollination which has been in practice
for perhaps six thousand years is really the most economical one may
be doubted, and some more effective way will possibly be discovered
in the New World, which has already made so many improvements in
methods of agriculture.

«The numbers in parentheses are those given by the Office of Seed and Plant Intro-
duction and Distribution, U. S. Department of Agriculture, to the specimens sent to
America.

VARIETIES. 21

DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF THE REGION.

There are hundreds of varieties of dates in the Persian Gulf region,
nearly every seedling being more or less different from its neighbor;
but those which have been propagated by suckers and are more or less
commonly known by the shippers number only about twenty or thirty.
It would be foreign to the purpose of this paper to list all of these
dates, although the time may come when it will be worth while to
examine them all and to station an expert in the region during the
fruiting season to search for superlative seedling sorts, or even with
the hope of finding among the thousands of seedling trees a single one
which bears a seedless fruit of fine quality. Seedless varieties which
are not the result of imperfect fertilization are believed to exist.
Mr. Sayegh showed the writer, in fact, on his own plantation, a single
tree, unfortunately without suckers, which he says has regularly pro-
duced, even when properly pollinated, seedless dates of fair quality,
though ripening late in the season.

The dates which are-exported to the various European and American
markets are not the most delicious varieties grown in Arabia and Per-
sia, but simply good packing and shipping kinds. Different markets
demand different varieties, and the principal market kinds for Europe
and America are the ‘* Halawi,” ** Khadrawi,” and ** Sayer” of Bas-
sorah, the **Kursi” of Bagdad, and the **Fard” of Maskat. Indian
and oriental markets call for quite different sorts from those known
in America, generally of the dry and boiled class, and such kinds as
the ** Zehedi,” ** Brehm,” ‘*Chupchap,” and ** Mubsli” are exported
to Bombay and Singapore, while for general home consumption the
**Zehedi,” of Bassorah and Bagdad, the **Gardiwahl” and ** Murda-
sing,” of Minab, and the ** Batna” kinds grown along the coast of that
name on the Gulf of Oman, are the commonest. Aside from these
dates, which are good shippers, there are a large number of kinds
which are highly prized for eating fresh from the tree—*‘rattab” as
they are called in Arabic. The best of these are likely to prove of
special interest to the date growers of America, where easy access to
large cities will make the creation of a market for fresh table dates a
possibility. Unfortunately, the notes secured on the comparative excel-
lence of these different rattab varieties had to be taken second hand,
as the visit of the writer to the Persian Gulf was made in March and the
dates in this locality ripen from June to October. There are, further.
no Europeans in the region whose interest in these fresh varieties has
prompted them to make a study of their qualities. In the spelling of
the different names, even, much variation exists, as it is often difficult
to find the equivalent letter for an Arabic sound and all words are
spelled phonetically. There is considerable variation in the Arabic
pronunciation as well. The continental value of the vowels has been

oD PERSIAN GULF DATES.

taken in spelling the names in the list given below and the numbers
which correspond with detailed descriptions that have been made out
for the records of the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction and Dis-
tribution and which accompany young plants or seeds of the various
sorts that have been sent to the United States Department of Agri-
culture or to the trial gardens in Arizona have been put opposite the
names. The dried dates of some yarieties have been secured to assist
in the meager descriptions.

BAGDAD VARIETIES.

Kustawt. (S. P. 1. 8738. A medium to large, oblong, soft, sticky
date, ripening in August, with stone of small size and little or no fiber
or “rag.” Skin a light golden brown, very delicate in texture and
adhering to the soft golden flesh, which is of exquisitely rich, sweet
date flavor. Too delicate for packing in the usual way, though keep-
ing well until April. Said to be fairly productive, but a delicate tree,
suited to adobe soils with an admixture of sand, and will withstand a
temperature of 17° F., or possibly lower.

Ascherasi. (S. P. I. 8739.) A medium-sized, ovate, semidry date,
ripening in September, generally not sticky, but easily handled with-
out soiling the fingers. Stone small in comparison with the flesh.
Some fiber, but not an objectionable amount. Skin of stem end dry,

straw colored, but at tip translucent and of amber hue; of medium

thickness and closely attached to the rather hard but sugary, sweet
flesh, which is of excellent flavor. As seen in March in Bagdad, these
dates are not packed in mat bags or boxes, but are sold in dry shape.
Grown in adobe soil, and reported to be a vigorous sort, hardy at
17° F., or even lower, and in special favor among both Christians and
Mussulmans, the former of whom, however, prefer it to all other sorts
to eat with English walnuts.

Bedrathe. (S. P. I. 8740.) A small, ovate to oblong, dry date, ripen-
ing late in September. Not at all sticky, with good-sized stone, and
more or less fiber about it. Skin straw color, with occasional trans-
lucent amber-colored spots near the tip; of parchment texture and
sticking closely to the dry flesh, which is full of sugar. Not packed,
but allowed to dry on the tree, though when fresh of soft consistency
like ordinary sorts. Eaten as commonly by Bagdadians as any sort of
date; easy of cultivation and capable of withstanding a winter tem-
perature of 17° F., and possibly lower. Grown in adobe soil by
irrigation.

Maktum. (S. P. I. 8741.) According to the description given the
writer, a superior sort of the ‘‘ Kustawi,” but resembling it closely,

«The numbers in parentheses refer to the records of the Office of Seed and Plant
Introduction and Distribution, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

VARIETIES. 95

being a soft, sticky date, with small stone, no fiber, and a beautiful
golden-brown skin which adheres closely to the golden, brownish-
yellow flesh. The sort ripens probably about the same time as the
**Kustawi,” i. e., in August, and is doubtless a delicate variety to culti-
yate. This date is considered by the Arab sheik Abdul Kader
Kedery. of Bagdad, one of the best two sorts in Arabia.

Burnt. (S. P. I. 8742.) A small, short, oblong date, ripening in
July or August in Maskat. When fresh, highly appreciated as a
table date, but generally boiled to form the ** Karak pokhta” before
fully ripe. Formerly shipped to America from Maskat. It is thought
that this variety is of Maskat origin, for it is little known in Bagdad.
It will probably prove more susceptible to cold than other sorts from
Bagdad. Grown in adobe soils.

Lehedi. (S. P. I. 8748.) A. small, oblong, dry date, ripening in
September to October. Stone of medium size and surrounded with
considerable fiber. Skin straw colored and tough, sticking closely to
the dry but sweet, mealy flesh of fair flavor. Sometimes packed in
bags or cases and called ** Kursi,” but generally allowed to dry on
the tree. This is said to be the hardiest, most resistant to drought
and alkali, and one of the most productive palms in the region.
Although considerably inferior to the ‘* Bedraihe,” it nevertheless
develops so quickly and yields so heavily that it is very commonly
planted. Often sold fresh attached to the clusters as **Zehedi gus.”
In the form called ** Kursi” it is of a golden-yellow color, but much
inferior in flavor to ** Kustawi” or ** Khadrawi.” One of the commonest
dates in Bagdad.

Barban. (S. P. I. 8744.) A date ripening at Bagdad, according
to information given by a grower, in July, and of only mediocre
quality. Very dark in color and not very sweet. Rarely cultivated
in the region and not well thought of generally. Valuable principally
for its early ripening habit and probable resistance to cold.

Sukeri. (S. P. 1. 8745.) A very large date, 2 inches or more in
length, and, when fresh, of excellent quality. Rarely cultivated and
the writer could not learn much about it, except that it is not a good
variety for shipment.

Taberzal. (S. P. I. 8794.) From dry specimens sent in, the writer
was unable to obtain a good idea of this date, but should describe it
as a small, oblong, soft variety, which ripens late in September. It
has a small stone, no fiber (or at least extremely little), and a dark,
amber-colored skin, which separates readily in dry specimens from the
dark-brown flesh. The latter is of a caramel consistency, but has a
most delicious flavor, and the variety can be eaten without soiling
the hands, as the skin is quite dry. When fresh, said to resemble very
closely the ** Berhi,” of Bassorah, though when dry there is scarcely
any resemblance. A rare date in Bagdad, but very highly thought of

oS ae

94 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

there. This fruit was not seen on the market and only seeds were
obtainable during the writer’s short stay, but suckers may possibly be
obtained through correspondence with the United States vice-consul,
Mr. Rudolph Hitrner, of Bagdad.

Mirhage. A variety reported to be grown in Mandalay, some three
days’ journey from Bagdad. Sheik Abdul Kader Kedery, of Bagdad,
said it was the finest date he knew, resembling the ‘‘ Maktum,” but of
even finer quality. It was not obtainable during the writer’s stay,
but may possibly be had by correspondence with the United States
vice-consul in Bagdad.

BASSORAH VARIETIES.

Berhi. (S. P. I. 8746.) Considered by many as the best soft date
in the region. Of medium size, not so sticky as the ordinary dates,
with small stone, no fiber, skin of amber to golden brown, of thin but
firm texture, tightly attached to the soft, luscious, rich-flavored, brown
flesh. ‘The most productive of all sorts in the Bassorah region, accord-
ing to Hadji Abdulla Nigem. Up to the present time not exported,
but sure to form one of the highest-priced export dates to America
because of its dry skin and exceptional lusciousness. An easy variety
to cultivate, but requiring an abundance of water. Grown in a stiff
adobe ‘soil. ;

Hevezi. (S. P. 1. 8747.) A date resembling the standard market
sorts like ** Halawi,” but of a much more delicious flavor. Samples
sent to New York were pronounced by date buyers the finest dates
they had ever tasted. Color light, size medium, ripening in Septem-
ber in Bassorah. <A little-known sort from Abu Kassib, the Bassorah
date center.

Sayer (or Ustaamran). (S. P. I. 8748.) A soft date of medium size
and dark color, with medium-sized stone and a small amount of fiber.
One of the sorts at one time exported to New York; now superseded
by others. Said to do best on a light, sandy soil and to require less
water than the ordinary varieties.

Halaw?. (S. P. 1.8750.) There are probably as many bearing trees
of this one sort in Mesopotamia as of any other, as it is the great
shipping date and the favorite on American and London markets. It
is a medium-sized, soft date, of sticky consistency, and ripens in Sep-
tember. The stone is medium to small; there is little fiber present,
and the light-brown skin of delicate texture sticks closely to the flesh,
which is abundant and of a deep-brown color, golden toward the stone. .
It possesses a strong date flavor and is of unusual sweetness. It is one
of the best packing dates, as it keeps well and can be sent all over the
world. <A fairly productive sort, but confined in its culture to an-
adobe soil with plenty of water. It is not grown outside of the Bas-
sorah region, it is said.

VARIETIES. 95

Khadrawi. (S. P. I. 8751.) A longer-shaped, darker-colored,
softer date than the ** Halawi,” but ranking second among the export
varieties and maturing in September. It is not of so rich a flavor as
the Halawi, which it resembles in other respects, but may prove more
adaptable to the conditions in Arizona and California.

HASSA VARIETIES.

The few hours spent in Bahrein, in the pearl! islands, which le 55
miles or so from Hassa, made it expedient for the writer to confine his
attention to securing a@ single superlative variety, for which an arrange-
ment was made through the kindness of the British Consul, Mr. Gas-
kin. There are doubtless inferior dates in Hassa.

Khalasa (or Khalast). (S. P. I. 8753.) A medium-sized, ovate,
sticky date, with small stone and no fiber, ripening as early as August
in the region of Hassa. The skin is a golden brown and of most
delicate texture, covering closely the rich golden flesh, which is of
exquisite date flavor and with the consistency of a chocolate caramel.
Said to be a delicate packer, and never exported except in the form of
presents. It has the renown all over the Persian Gulf region of being
the most delicious date in the world. Of its productiveness or hardiness
little is known, but it is probable that a sandy will suit it better than
an adobe soil, as it comes from the sandy region of Hassa, which is
fed by underground water courses. This variety probably requires
surface irrigation also.

JASK VARIETIES.

It was possible to learn only the names of the best dates grown in
the interior behind Jask from the gardener of the Persian telegraph
station at that place. They are called ** Kharoo,” **Shakari,” ** Nim-
kadami,” and ** Zarek,” and the ‘*Shakari” is said to ripen some of
its fruits in May(?7). The former director of the telegraph station,
Mr. G. W. Mongavin, stated that at Bashkhara, five to six days’ camel
ride into the interior, some very superior dates are grown, but he
could not give their names.

BUNDER ABBAS VARIETIES.

Minab is the date region of which Bunder Abbas is the nearest port,
and according to the ‘* dabach,” or ship’s chandler, who has lived in the
region, the best-known sorts are the ** Halawi,” ‘*Gardiwahl,” ‘* Mur-
dasing,” and ‘‘Fard.” The most superior of these is said to be the
** Murdasing.”

MASKAT VARIETIES.

Fard. (S.P.1. 8754.) One of the commonest dates in the American
markets. More than 1,000 tons are said to be exported from Maskat

é

26 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

every year, coming from the Semail Valley, 50 miles in the interior.
A medium-sized date, longer and narrower than the ‘‘Halawi” or
‘**Khadrawi,” and belonging to the soft, sticky type. Stone medium
large, with little fiber about it. The skin is of firm texture and dark
brown in color, fitting closely to the deep amber-colored flesh, which.
is of a strong, rich, date flavor, but not of quite such fine texture as the
‘**Halawi” or ** Berhi.” As a packing date it is the best in the region,
although maturing late in the season for Maskat, i. e., in August. It
is adapted to the hottest regions of America and probably to a sandier
soil than that suited to the ‘‘ Halawi.”

burnt. (©: 22. 8155.) See“ 7Burni” of Bagdads(S. Pr. sit) sion
the description of a date which the writer believes to be the same as
this Maskat °‘ Burni.”

Nagal. (8S. P. 1. 8756.) A small, soft, sticky date, ripening before
any other sort in Maskat—as early as June—and eaten exclusively as
rattab or in fresh condition. It has a light-colored skin, and its flesh
is inferior in flavor to ‘‘ Fard,” but it is keenly appreciated by Euro-
peans as well as Arabs, because the first fresh date brought to the mar-
ket. Of particular interest to American date growers, on account of
its earliness, which may enable it to ripen good fruit farther north
than the other sorts. Secured through the kindness of United States
Vice-Consul Mackirdy at Maskat.

Mubsali. (S. P. 1. 8757.) A long, narrow, unusually large variety,
cultivated for boiling purposes. Stone large and with some little
fiber about it. Prepared for market by boiling the still unripe fruits
for an hour in water to which a large handful of salt per gallon has
been added, and drying in the sun. After this preparation the flesh
is hard and tastes like candy, but it is generally shghtly astringent,
particularly if improperly prepared. There isa large demand in India
for this date, where it is used at wedding and other feasts, and big
prices are paid for it, making it, it is said, the most profitable date
grown about Maskat.

Khanezt. (S. P. I. 8758.) An almost globular date of the soft,
sticky type, consumed locally in Maskat as rattab, ripening in July,
and considered one of the best of the early dates. Not a packing sort,
and keeping only a short time. From the valley of Semail, 50 miles
in the interior. :

Khassab. (S. P. I. 8759.) <A soft, sticky date of red color, some-
what shorter than the ‘*‘ Fard” and ripening in August. Not shipped,
but eaten fresh or soon after ripening. One of the heaviest yielders
in the region, a single tree bearing, according to rough estimates, as
much as 450 pounds. From the Semail Valley, and suited to culture
in the hottest regions of the United States.

Hela. (S. P. I. 8760.) A round date of the shape of an English
walnut, but smaller, with light-yellow skin, borne in exceptionally

mo

VARIETIES. 27
large bunches. A rare sort even in Maskat, consumed locally as rattab

and considered by the inhabitants as of excellent quality.
GUADUR VARIETIES.

It was impossible to secure much information regarding the region
inland from Guadur. The port is that from which Pangh Ghur and
Kej are reached by caravan; the former is thirteen days’, the latter
only six days’ journey. Through the kindness of Lieuts. W. H.
Maxwell and W. O. Grant, of the First Baluchistan Light Infantry,
stationed at Kurrachee, a native Baluchistan servant was sent as far as
Kej and secured from Rostom Khan, younger brother of the Nazim,
or native ruler of the province, a collection of young plants of the
best varieties grown there. These were brought down to Guadur,
accompanied with labels bearing the name only, and comprising twenty-
four varieties, among which was the famous ** Mozaty.” The fruit of
this sort is sent to Kurrachee sometimes as a delicacy, and is packed in
small earthen jars preserved in the sirup of inferior dates. As eaten in
Kurrachee in February they impressed the writer as the richest-flavored
dates he had ever tasted. The following list is made up from the labels
found on the palms, though there may have been some confusion of
the names previous to the time of delivery of the plants:

Mozaty (or Mozati). (S. P. I. 8762.) Chupshook (or Trupshook). (S. P. L
Gush, a male variety. (S. P. I. 8763.) 8775. )

Apdandon. (S. P. I. 8764.) Korroo. (S. P. I. 8776.)

Soont Gora. (S. P. I. 8765.) Rogani. (8. P. I. 8777.)

Hashna. (S. P. I. 8766.) Churpan. (S. P. I. 8778.)

Gonzelli. (S. P. I. 8767.) Kharba. (8S. P. I. 8779. )

Jalghi (or Jalka). (S. P. I. 8768.) Dundari. (S. P. I. 878 ro

Bagum Jurghi(or Junghi). (S. P.1.8769.) | Subzoo. (S. P. I. 8781.

Shukkeri. (S. P. I. 8770.) Gond Gorbug. (S. P. L 8782.)

Koroch. (S. P. I. 8771.) Washclont (or Washclunt). (S. P. IL.
Hallani. (S. P. I. 8772.) 8783. )

Shapego. (S. P. I. 8773.) Kalara (or Kularu). (S. P. I. 8784.)
Dishtari. (S. P. I. 8774.) Hurshut (or Hurshud). (S. P. I. 8785.)

DISEASES AND PESTS.

Altogether, the palms of the Persian Gulf region are most remark-
ably healthy. So far as could be learned they suffer from no serious
disease, and none of the shippers or growers could name a single malady
which had at any time done much damage to their estates. Ona few
palms at Bassorah several leaves were observed that were attacked by a
small ash-colored scale insect ( Parlatoria planchardi Tar. Tozz.), which
is common in other parts of the world; but even this was doing little
damage. In comparison with the palms of Egypt and Algeria they
were most strikingly clean and healthy looking. The dry dates are
often attacked in the storehouses by an insect (which the writer was

28 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

unable to see) which leaves an excrement in the cavity near the stone,
but the soft varieties in this region were remarkably free from insects
of any kind.

One might imagine that there would be during the date season a
host of birds and small animals which would feast on the ripening
dates, but curiously enough the growers were not able to name a sin-
gle troublesome pest of this character. Even the date bird is not
believed to live on the dates; at any rate does no serious damage.

The principal enemy of the date in Mesopotamia is the ‘‘shamal,” a
wind blowing across the desert laden with hot sand. If this occurs
before the dates have sufficiently matured it dries them up and covers
them with dust, checking their development and soiling them so that
they are refused by the European and American importers. Last sea-
son’s crop (1900) at Bassorah was seriously injured in this way, and the
writer was told that the export was reduced from nearly 2,000,000 to
about 1,000,000 cases.

COST AND PROFITS OF DATE CULTURE.

Twenty years ago in Mesopotamia handsome profits were made by
Europeans in the date packing and shipping business, but of recent
years the native-born Jews have learned how to pack, and have seri-
ously reduced the gains to be made in date exporting. The repre-
sentative of one of the largest concerns at Bassorah informed the
writer that last year some of the packers actually carried on business
at a loss in order to keep their brands on the market, and that very
small profits were made by any of the firms. This was owing to the
poor crop and a glutted home market, with many cases left over from
the preceding year.

With the date grower, matters are somewhat different. His expenses
for the maintenance of the garden are small and the cost of market-
ing the product slight, so that he realizes, according to a conservative
estimate given by the manager of one of the large firms in Bassorah,
on an average about 5 to 6 per cent profit. In an especially good
year his profits might reach 10 per cent, but would hardly surpass this
figure. Itis next to impossible to find out how well date culture pays
in this region, for the Arabs do not keep careful books of their
expenses. From a reliable source, however, it was ascertained that
one large proprietor netted last year—which was, however, an excep-
tionally bad season—less than 2 per cent on the estimated value of the
estate. So it is evident that the profits of date growing on the Shat-
el-Arab are no more sure than those of any other agricultural business.

The mudir, or business manager, of the Sultan’s large estates at
Amara remarked that the Turkish Government levies a tax of 2 piasters
(about 8 cents) per year on every palm in Bagdad, 14 pilasters in Amara,

PACKING AND SHIPMENT. 29

and from 15 to 180 piasters per hundred palms in Bassorah, according
to the location and bearing condition of the trees. This does not, how-
ever, in any sense represent the full amount of taxation to which a
date planter is subjected, for there are many ways by which the rate
of 10 to 15 per cent—which is commonly spoken of as prevailing—is
made up. The methods of its collection and the hindrances to quick
transactions form no inconsiderable part of the heavy yoke which is
imposed upon the Arab landowner in his own land. The large land-
owner suffers less proportionately than the small one, for he can pre-
vent the overappraisement to which the assessors subject the poor and
ignorant peasant.

PACKING AND SHIPMENT OF DATES.

Dates are no doubt one of the stickiest, most difficult fruits in the
world to keep clean, and the Persian Gulf varieties are perhaps par-
ticularly hard to pack in an attractive shape; but nevertheless the
stories which one hears in the region of the conditions in the packing
sheds and the personal uncleanliness of the men, women, and children
who put up the dates are enough to disgust a sensitive person and
to prevent his ever eating packed dates again without having them
washed. No old inhabitant thinks of eating a date without first thor-
oughly washing it in a glass of water, unless the cook has prepared it
beforehand, and the sale of dates in America might fall off decidedly
were it generally known how intimately the unwashed hands, bodies,
and teeth of the notably filthy Arabs often come in contact with the
dates which are sold by every confectioner. Shippers claim they have
tried better methods of packing but found that they did not pay, for
the Persian Gulf date is expected to be obtainable for about 5 cents a
pound. From the small pound boxes which were used last year it

would seem that the packers have not yet learned the art of making
them as attractive as the Algerian dates, which fetch as high as 40
cents for a box of less thana pound. It is probably true that the com-
mon varieties in this region are too full of sirup to pack well in the
way that such a sort as the ‘**‘ Deglet Noor,” of Algeria, is put up, but it
is almost certain that varieties can be found which could be treated in
a similar manner and could compete with this superlative sort of North
Africa. The length of time which the fruit is allowed to hang on the
tree has presumably something to do with the stickiness of the skin,
for there are in Arabia dates of good quality with dry skins, which,
when packed in the ordinary way, are indistinguishable from the
ordinary sticky kinds. Under present conditions there is little pros-
pect of any radical change being made in the old methods of packing.

Scarcely any of the packing firms own date plantations, but obtain
their dates from the Arab landowners through trusted Arab buyers.
Some of these buyers, who have been in the business for many years, are

30 PERSIAN GULF DATES.

intrusted with £10,000 to £20,000 in cash at a time, with which they
purchase the tons of dates that are necessary to supply the packing
sheds. As in most businesses of this kind, there are risks to be taken,
for the packer must buy in August and sell in November, during
which time the price may have fluctuated considerably. It requires
good judgment to decide how much to pay in August for November
delivery. The New York shipments to be most profitable must be in
before Thanksgiving Day, and when this comes unusually early in the
month the packers have their hands full to get their shipments through
in time. Last season two steamer loads went direct from Bassorah to
New York, and though, owing to the bad crop and glutted market,
this venture did not prove a great success, the experiment will probably
be made again the coming year.

THE DATE AS A FOOD.

The doctors seem agreed that sweet things in excess are injurious to
the digestion, and the dentists claim that sugar ferments between the
teeth, forming lactic acid which attacks the dentine; but for all this, it
is doubtful if there can be found a sounder, stronger race, with better
digestion and finer, whiter teeth than the date-eating Arabs. The
town Arabs and the Arabs of the seacoast eat quantities of dried fish
and other sea animals, but the denizens of the Arabian desert live almost
exclusively upon dates and bread, with occasional feasts of sheep,
goat, or chicken. Travelers across those deserts report that 3 pounds
of dates and a few thin loaves of hard wheat bread per day will keep
an Arab in good health for vears. The quantity of these packed dates
that a healthy Arab can consume at a sitting is astonishing. Two
pounds would not be much more than an ordinary meal. The remark-
able physique of the Arabs and their resistance to the almost unbear-
able heat of their country might be attributed, in part at least, to the
nature of their simple food. At any rate, a thorough investigation of
the food value of the date and its adaptability to the formation of
foods for our hot summer season should be made, and possibly this
wonderful vegetable product, which is now used in America only as a
second-class confection, might be utilized as a basis of a nutritious new
food. Such investigations will never be made in that part of the world
where the dates are grown, but must be undertaken by some country
like America which is interested in increasing the number of its food
products.

Pe PAS,

dl

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE I. (Frontispiece.) Fig. 1.—The old canal of Bassorah, which leads from the
Shat-el-Arab River up to the town of Bassorah through plantations of date
palms. Fig. 2.—A new plantation of dates at Bassorah, showing how closely to
one another the irrigation ditches are run. Barley is grown on these areas in
which the young palms have just been set. Fig. 3.—The border of the area at
Bassorah which is watered by tidal irrigation. Patches of alfalfa grow on the

newly irrigated areas. 3

PuateE II. Fig. 1.—An old date garden at Bagdad, the property of Sheik Abdul Kader
Kedery, one of the richest date planters in the region. Fig. 2.—Irrigation ditches
of a new plantation at Bassorah, showing the frequency of the canals, the nature
of the soil, and in the background the primitive habitations of the date peasants.
Fig. 3.—Typical village and date palms on the old Bassorah canal; in the fore-
ground, the oriental gondola or ‘‘bellem,’’ which is the principal vehicle of
Bassorah.

Puate III. Fig. 1.—A bag of Maskat dates, showing old method of packing for export.

Fig. 2.—Typical date plantation at Abu Kassib, the most famous date center of
Bassorah, belonging to Hadji Abdulla Nigem, the most noted date merchant of
the region. Fig. 8.—Bassorah date peasant with his spade, the principal hand
tool used in the date plantations of this region.

Puate IV. Fig. 1.—Panorama, from Mr. Marine’s house, of a new date area on the
Shat-el-Arab River above Bassorah. The patchesare planted with barley. Fig.
2.—Irrigation machines at work near Bagdad. In the foreground the ordinary
primitive machine called a chird; in the background a more modern invention,
resembling a chain and bucket pump, operated by horsepower. Fig. 3.—Intake
of irrigation canal on the Tigris above Bassorah, showing how low the banks
are and that no lifting of the water is necessary on this part of the river in
order to fill the irrigating ditches. A Turkish guardhouse is seen on the left.

32
O

PLATE Il.

Bul. 54, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Fic. 1.—OLD DATE GARDEN AT BAGDAD.

Fia. 2.—IRRIGATION DITCHES IN NEW
PLANTATION, BASSORAH.

Fia. 3.—VILLAGE AND DATE PALMS ON THE
OLD BASSORAH CANAL.

PLATE Ill.

FIG.

Is

A BAG OF MASKAT DATES.

Fig.

y]

ra

.—TYPICAL DATE PLANTATION AT
BASSORAH.,

Fia, 3.—BASSORAH PEASANT WITH HIS SPADE.

Bul. 54, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE IV.

Fi@. 3.—INTAKE OF IRRIGATION CANAL ABOVE BASSORAH.

reece

=a, ie} sane ae ‘Se ce. a, } a ef 7b. 8e2
o , -¥ vip *. « ? ae “S :
ier of Vora for the Ye rs 1901 and 11902. : sees a

Mis ys =

22. agar ae of Bakke Polkietians With General Nob on Artificial“
; a “Pollination and the Setting of Fruit without hg abies 1902. Price, 10—
pa i” eentes oc |
= * 23. Berseem: The Great Forage and Soiling Crop of. the Nile Valley: 1902: :
_ Priee, 15 cents.
24, The Manufacture and Preservation of Unfermented Grape Must. bg
‘Price, 10 cents. |
- 95. Miscellaneous Papers: I. The Seeds of Rescue Grass and Chess. IT. aacepiiat
> Wheat. III.’ Plant Introduction Notes from South Africa. IV: Congres- ~ :
sionat Seed and Plant Distribution Circulars, 1902-1903. 1903. - Price, 15) ae pe

Poa peo - cents. :
"- * :26. Spanish Almonds and Their Introduction into America. 1902.- Price, 15”
a ° _ ; cents.

‘27. Letters on Aesectisas in the West Indies, Spam, and the Orient. 1902.
Price, 15 cents. pres
28. The Mango i in Porto Rico. _ 1903. . Price, 15 cents. 4 wo 3
29. The Effect of Black Rot on Turnips: A Series of Photomicrographs, Accom- ae
. panied by an Explanatory Text. 1903. Price, 15 cents. as est ys
i 30. Budding the Pecan. 1902. Price, 10 cents. | + gees
731. Cultivated Forage Crops of the Northwestern States. 1902. Price, 10 cents. ~~
~ 32 A Disease of the White Ash Cansed by Poly Berge Fraxinophilus. ts ic? eee
<a: Price, 10 cents. ae aot ok F
_~*. 33. North American Species of Leptechloa. _ 1903. Price, 15 cents. \
: 34. Silkworm Food Plants: Cultivation and Propagation. 1505 Prive: 1B
y+ cents. f pu ee
Loe Fy 35. Recent Foreign Explorations, as “Bearing on the Agricultural Develapignt ES:
be 3* ~ of the Southern States. 1903. Price, 15 cents. z <<
= 36.The “Bluing” and the “Red Rot’’ of the Western Yellew Pine, w ith Spe
- — elal bebe baite to the Black Hills Forest Reserve. 1903. - Price, 30 cents.
. Formation of the Spores in the Sporangia of Rhizopus Nigricans and of Phy- ° ie
~. ... eomyces Nitens. 1903. » Price, 15 cents. ae
38. Forage Conditions and Problems in Eastern Washington, Eastern Oresee
FE xp Northeastern California, and Northwestern Nevada. 1903. ess 1 rs ees
ae O27 cents. 5 ite
39. The Propagation of the Easter Lily fons Seed.- 1903. Price, 10 cents; 4 oS
ct 40. Cold Storage, with Special Reference to the Pear and Peach. 1903. eed iS,
His > 15 cents. pi
> 44, The Commercial Grading of Corn. 1903.- Price, 10 ite
Bet » 42. Three New Plant Introductions from Japan. — Price, 10 cents. oS eye ae
“. _-‘-*:-43. Japanese Bamboos and Their Introduction into America. 1903. Price, 10 Be
ig rat‘ eents. . <> ” = p : 5 “3 i ints ; é 7
44. The Bitter Rot‘oi Apples. 1903. Price, 15 cents. Bae
45. The Physiological Role of Mineral Nutrients in Plants. Price, 5 cents. eae
sinh 45.7 *-opagation of Tropical Fruit Trees and Other Plants.~ Price, 10 cents.
tga _ _seription of Wheat Varieties. 1903. Price, 10 cents. eS Sane
ae ‘+ Apple in Cold Storage.._1903., Price, 15 cents. * <2 aS eee
e495 ‘whe Culture o* the Central American Rubber Tree. . 1903.~ Price, 25 cents. : ;
ot. 7 00. Wild Rice: Iis Uses and Propagation. 1903. Price, 10 cents. :
_ 51. Miscellaneous Papers: Part I. the Wilt Disease of Tobaceo and its Co ntrol: x
ZT - 1903. Price, 5 cents... . — 5 OS is
é é Be Wither-Tip and Other Diseases, Py: Citrous Trees and Fruits Caused: by. y Calle: ee
‘totrichum Gleosporicides. {In press.] = ~ Ket
ep The oe Minas and its oeesee in the Southwestern Sie “Cn press. ]

via en
J oM" Jie

DF tree, Cae
aw

Belk Ni
\

Dal Pe aS

nat
’

:
4

a ee

« - io s « ie - ..
. an i
rf 7 eS ~ tee et 8 a ee id - 5

a> as pom :

. a