THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 11 



Arab comnnniity I know which roots them in nursery rows, as we now 

 do in I'alifornia. Large Fardh ott'shcots are scarce and bring as iimch 

 as $1 each, while a sucker weighing not more than six or seven pounds 

 can be had for twelve cents. They are set in deep holes, ' ' because they 

 grow Ijigger;'' all Arabs consider that the top layer of earth is prejudi- 

 cial to ott'slioots, because of its hardness. Winter is considered the best 

 time for planting; fall will do, but spring and summer will not. The 

 nursery rows are often between the palms of a plantation, and the off- 

 shoots are left there for a year or more — sometimes three or four years 

 — when they are transplanted, also in winter, to till up gaps or start a 

 new orchard. A Fardh palm in its prime is valued at $50.00 or more ; 

 one shaykh held his three-acre plantation at $10,000.00. Palms are set 

 about twenty feet apart, nearly always in regular rows. The gross 

 return from even a good palm, however, is seldom more than $1.50 or 

 $2.00 a year. 



The Fardhs ripen about the first of September, but long before this 

 the crop has been bought on the trees by Indian money lenders, who 

 advance funds to the proprietors in their hour of need, earlier in the 

 year. These brokers pick the crop and transport it to Mattrah, the 

 •twin city to Masqat, where they auction it to the agents of exporting 

 houses. Transport from the garden to the coast costs about $6.00 for 

 one bihar of 200 maunds, each containing a little less than nine 

 pounds. Pickers can be had for seven or eight cents a day, payable 

 either in cash or dates, as the employee selects. The upkeep of gardens 

 is usually put in the hands of a caretaker, who is paid by the choice of 

 one bunch from each palm at harvest time, and his lien on this is a 

 prior one which the money lender must respect. 



Fardh dates of average quality are worth little more than a cent a 

 pound at the time of the harvest. If the pickers want payment in 

 dates, for instance, they regiUarly get one maund a day, while at 

 auction sales in the valley in 1912 the price for ten maunds (about 

 eighty-eight pounds) was $1.10, on the average. The crop that year 

 was good, but overproduction seems to be a danger, for the crop in 1911 

 was even better, while in 1906 it was so heavy that the dates could not 

 be sold, and were sometimes left to rot on the ground. 



On the other hand, practically all the available land is under cultiva- 

 tion at present, in AVadi Samail. There are extensive plantations of 

 the Fardh in Wadi Aman, the name given to the upper course of the 

 stream which passes through Samail. How extensive they really are I 

 do not know, as I did not visit them, but Arabs said one might travel 

 all day without coming to the end of the plantations, which are, how- 

 ever, scattered, and not a solid area as in Samail. Take it all around, 

 it looks as if an increased market was badly needed by the Omanis, 

 and that no material increase in production is likely, if indeed possible. 



At iMattrah the dates are packed, by wasteful and unattractive 

 methods, for expert to New York, which takes practically all the Fardh 

 output that is not consumed locally or in the gulf. The firms engaging 

 in this export business are Hills Brothers Company, Arnold, Cheney 

 and Company, Birdsong and Brothers, and Suffern and Company, all 

 with their headquarters in New York. Much of the trade is carried on in 

 chartered steamers, which make the trip to New York direct in less than a 

 month. Exports to New York in 1911 were 3,882,008.5 pounds, valued 



