130 DATEGROWING 



they are brought from the field, in order to free them 

 of insect eggs and the bacteria of fermentation and 

 decay. A temperature of 180° to 190° F. for three 

 hours is all that is necessary. The rancher can 

 perform the operation in the oven of his cookstove, 

 in a rough way, but commercial growers will probably 

 build an oven for the purpose, in order to handle 

 considerable quantities of fruit, spread out on shallow 

 trays with wire-mesh bottoms, to give free circulation 

 of the air. If an incubator is kept for rapid artificial 

 ripening of the dates, it can also be used for 

 pasteurization. 



In a dry, hot climate, and with suitable varieties 

 of dates, pasteurization will be unnecessary unless 

 the fruit is likely to be stored for a long period of time. 

 The grower should use his own judgment, but he 

 should err on the safe side, for it will be detrimental 

 to the entire future of the industry if any one puts 

 on the market dates which are infested with worms. 



If the dates are ripened on the palm, they will be 

 ready for packing as soon as they are pasteurized 

 and after, in the case of soft varieties, they have been 

 dried well in the sun. Otherwise they must be arti- 

 ficially ripened, but I leave the discussion of that 

 process for a separate chapter. 



Packing is a subject on which the grower must 

 follow his own ideas, or, later, the ideas of the co- 

 operative association of which he may be a member. 

 I can, therefore, only give some general suggestions. 

 It is hardly necessary to point out that packing is, 

 as far as the creation of public sentiment is concerned, 

 probably the most important part of the date industry, 

 and that any grower who allows himself to sell dates 

 that are not well packed is injuring not only his own 



