CHAPTER XII. 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 



The question of variety is as important wnth dates 

 as with other commercial fruits. In America there 

 are nearly 400 varieties, from all parts of the date- 

 growing world. It is therefore necessary for the 

 grower to get an intelligent idea of the characteristics 

 of dates of different countries, and the characteristics 

 to be sought in those he chooses for his own plantation. 



Algeria and Tunisia have been the most- worked 

 field for varieties, up to the present. These regions 

 are undoubtedly characterized by a greater number 

 of insignificant varieties than any other of the orient: 

 the number in the Ziban* alone is sometimes 

 estimated as high as six hundred. Of course, most of 

 them are nothing more than chance seedlings, which are 

 confined to the plantation of one man, and frequently 

 to one tree. Such dates have no importance in their own 

 country, and it is not to be expected that they could 

 ever have in ours. 



Algeria and Tunisia are further characterized 

 by the large proportion of their varieties which are 

 dry, and yet again by the fact that most of their dry 

 dates are hard and of inferior quality, compared with 

 the dry dates of other regions. 



Finally, the dates of these two countries are 

 prevailingly late. Deglet Nur is one of the latest 



*The Ziban (pi. of Zab, oasis) is the region in the northern Sahara 

 of Algeria, of which Biskra is the center. It contains 600,000 palms; 

 most of the Deglet Niirs and many other good varieties in the United 

 States have come from there. South of it is the Oued Righ or Rirh, 

 with 1,000,000 palms, the native home and chief center of Deglet Nur. 



