THE MONTI IT,Y BULLETIN. 9 



THE HOME OF THE FARDH DATE. 



Paul B. Popenoe, West India Gardens, Altadena, California. 



At present the Fardh* date is the highest priced sold on the American 

 market, with the exception of a very small quantity of Deglet Nurs 

 from Algeria or Tunisia, and a negligible quantity of Majhuls from 

 Morocco. To ascertain how severe a competition it was likely to offer 

 to the rapidly growing date industry of California, to investigate the 

 methods used in its culture, and to secure offshoots of this and any 

 other valuable varieties, the West India Gardens of Altadena directed 

 me to pay a visit to Oumu, during the trip which I made to the Persian 

 Gulf in the winter of 1912-1913, in company with my brother, F. W. 

 Popenoe. 



The results of my investigation may be summed up as follows: Pro- 

 duction of the Fardh date is not likely to be much increased, and Cali- 

 fornia can certainly produce much better dates; therefore she need 

 fear no serious competition from the Fardh. The methods used by the 

 native cultivators of Oman are the most intelligent and skillful employed 

 by any Arabs with wliom 1 am familiar, but they do not equal those of 

 m3y)wn countrymen, although their use of manure and water illuminates 

 several points of interest to us. Methods of packing and handling the 

 crop are inferior. As regards offshoots, I secured 100 of the Fardh, 

 and enough of the fourteen other best varieties to make up a total of 

 575, which are now growing in Coaehella Valley. 



Production of Fardh dates is practically confined to Samail Valley 

 and its continuation, Aman Valley, 50 miles inland from ]\[as((at, the 

 capital of the little dominion of Oman, a principality which is nomi- 

 nally independent, but subject to British influence, and which occupies 

 the eastern apex of Arabia, jutting out into the Persian Gulf. There 

 are many other good date-growing regions in Oman, but the Fardh, 

 according to the natives, does not flourish in them. I can testify from 

 personal knowledge that it is not cultivated on the coast, the so-called 

 Batinah, where date plantations extend for several hundred miles; 

 whether it be the prevailing winds, the humidity, or some soil condition 

 that is inimical to this variety, 1 do not know, but native testimony, and 

 past experience with this variety in the United States, certainly justify 

 the supposition that it is rather delicate. At any rate, to see the Fardh, 

 one must go to Wadi Samail, and I made the three days' trip in com- 

 pany with the American consul at IMasqat, Homer Brett of Mississippi, 

 as a guest of the Sultan of Oman, on his own camels and with his own 

 bodyguard. 



Samail valley lies at the foot of the Green Mountains ( Jabal Akhdhar) 

 rising to a height of nearly 10,000 feet, which shelter it from the desert. 

 It is eight or ten miles long and a third as wide, running northeast and 

 southwest, with its opening toward the sea. It is surrounded by high 

 hills, forming a perfect basin, but through the seaward gap blows a 

 wind, in the winter months, that is frequently destructive. Humidity 

 is considerable, for the mango, banana and papaya are found in the 



*This is the correct spelling, although "Fard" is the usual trade name. The word 

 is classical Arabic, meaning "apportioned" ; modern Arabs usually spell it in a slightly 

 different way, meaning "separated" and claim that this refers to the way the dates 

 are disposed in the bunch. 



