CULTURE OF THE PALM 97 



A frost when the fruit was ripening or the flowers 

 being pollinated might be disastrous, but such a thing 

 is impossible in most date growing countries, and frost 

 in winter is not serious enough to give any concern. 

 Young trees should always be protected, but it is 

 entirely needless to consider heating a palm garden, 

 as orange growers do their groves. The Arab grower, 

 when threatened by frost, places a tortoise on his 

 back in the middle of the grove, and thus avoids all 

 danger; but of course a man must stay beside him 

 throughout the night, for if the tortoise should succeed 

 in turning over on his belly and walking away, the 

 frost would immediately descend in full force. 



There is danger from wind, however, in most 

 date-growing regions, and it is highly necessary 

 that ample windbreaks should be planted, particularly 

 for the protection of young palms. If one is in a 

 sandy region, he could well afford to plant numerous 

 windbreaks through his orchard,* of a sufficiently 

 dense nature to stop sand when it is blown through 

 the air; otherwise a sandstorm, arriving when the 

 dates are soft and sticky, may make the crop almost 

 unsaleable. This difficulty is frequently experienced 

 in the Persian Gulf region, where a whole crop is some- 

 times nearly a loss; and the dates of Hasa are al- 

 ways and notoriously gritty. 



The palm must be trimmed regularly, but it is 

 better not to do this until it is four or five years old. 

 After that the leaves that are actually dead or dying 

 should be taken off each year, and the trunk cleaned 

 up of fibre and other decaying matter which offers a 

 refuge for borers. There is danger in trimming too 



*A row of seedling dates, reinforced by a row of pomegranates, 

 would be excellent. The latter fruit is well adapted to resisting heat, 

 drought, and alkali. 



