140 DATEGROWING 



growers under his supervision. The method was 

 brought to efficiency,* but has been partly abandoned 

 in favor of slower ripening without artificial heat. 

 It is still invaluable, howevei", in the case of dates 

 which have been exposed to rain while ripening, or 

 have mummified on the tree, or when for any other 

 reason it is desired to produce quick results; and 

 every grower can and should master the details of it. 

 It is true that a good deal of the technique depends 

 on the judgment of the operator, but this is also the 

 case with the baking of bread, in which every good 

 housekeeper has attained success. 



The apparatus required is an oven of some 

 kind in which heat can be maintained at about 110° F. 

 for a period of twenty-four hours. A large incubator 

 made for poultrymen will do, but something cheaper 

 could easily be constructed from galvanized iron, 

 provided with a coil of hot water pipes and a kerosene 

 lamp. The dates should be washed and drained 

 thoroughly, if they are nearly ripe; but if they are 

 still hard, as is usually the case, they should be 

 soaked in tepid water for from twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours. Then they are placed on a screen in the 

 incubator, with a pan of water underneath, and the 

 incubator tightly closed. If the dates were picked 

 when hard, from eighteen to twenty-three hours 

 will be necessary, at a temperature of 110° F., to 

 ripen them, but if they were soft, and merely picked 

 because suddenly struck by a rain, a few hours may 

 be sufficient to complete the process, which has the 

 advantage of freeing them from all insect life, as well 

 as preventing fermentation. 



Good dates are undeniably produced by this 

 *Results of this work were never published authoritatively. 



