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unripe flowers. In a day or so these will ripen, and there will be 
sufficient pollen left to fertilize them. The fellah thus is saved 
a second journey up the palm.’”’ “Occasionally, when the male 
pollen is scarce, or where there is an unusually large number of 
females to fertilize in a short time, the pollen is shaken out of 
the ripe male flowers and tied up in a bag of fine muslin. This 
bag is tied to the end of a stick. The fellah can quickly fertilize 
a large number of female inflorescences by dusting them with 
this bag.” The period may vary within a week or two but the 
writer when in Amara in 1918 and 1919 found the process of 
fertilization confined to the month of April. 
A number of tables are given from which a few facts are 
drawn—‘‘ Palms are most dense in Area D, where the average 
number is 176 per acre, and least dense in Area E, where the 
average is 84 per acre. The relative frequencies are illustrated 
* Throughout the Shat Al ’Arab date zone the average 
frequency of palms and fruit trees per acre appears to be as 
follows :—Total Palms and Trees, 179. Total ape 140. 
a. 
~ Khadhrawi” 10, “Dain” 5,“ Zahidi” 3,“ Digal” 3, 
* Gantar’”’ 2, “‘ Braim’”’ 2, ‘“ Shoorar’”’ 1, “Others” 1. Total 
Male Palms, 3 :—‘“‘Gainami” 1, “ Khikri’” 1, “Others” 1. 
Total Offshoot Palms, 15 :—‘‘ Halawi” 9, “Istaamran” 4, 
*“ Zahidi’”’ 1, “Others”? 1. Total Fruit Trees, 39 :—“ Fig” 9, 
“Pomegranate” 8, “ Citrus” 6, “Vine” 4, “Mulberry” 3, 
“Quince” 3, “Nectarine” 3, “Apple” 1, ‘‘ Peach” A, 
* Apricot’ 1. Other crops in the date gardens included fruits, 
in addition to those above-mentioned, the “ Olive,” “ Jujube,’ 
“Water Melon,’ &c., several of the ordinary vegetables— 
“ Beetroot,” “ Cabbage,” “ Turnip,” “Onion,” &c. and various, 
as ‘Rice,’ ‘ Wheat,’ ‘Barley,’ ‘Cotton,’ “ Lucerne, 
“ Ground-nut,”’ ‘‘ Sesame,”’ &c. 
The average yield of “tamar” dates (the third and last 
stage in the ripening of the date, usually toffee-like and dark 
coloured, the form in which dates are seen in foreign markets) 
per acre in the Shat Al ‘Arab date lands in the year 1919 appears 
to have been 4920 lbs. made up as follows :—* Istaamran, 
2183 Ibs.: ‘‘ Halawi,” 1584 lIbs.; “ Khadhrawi” 300 Ibs.; 
 Dairi,” 160 lbs.; ‘‘ Zahidi,” 378 Ibs.; and “ Others,”’ 315 Ibs. ; 
Total, 4920 Ibs. ! 
“The price of dates fluctuates rapidly and between wide 
limits, so that it is not easy to state with any exactness what 
is the average price. A very rough approximation to the prices 
paid to garden-owners during the last two years would be some- 
what as follows :— ‘ 
$6 ” ss awi tig Rs. 400 a Kara 
66 ae = — — ‘c on dhrawi” of 6048 Ibs. 
66 ” 8) Ss. &é idi RP eo ie ae 950 a ar 
— ; “yi of 6048 Ibs. ~ 
