68 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



It is probable that no fruits are so indispensable to the inhabitant 

 of the countries where thej- flourish as the so-called bread fruits of 

 the Pacific Islands, the date and fig. They are literally meat and 

 drink, forming the staple food of the countries in which thej- flourish. 

 It is said that no Persian cook is considered competent unless she 

 can serve a different dish of dates each da}' in the month. It is the 

 sugar of this fruit which renders it so valuable, and sugar having a 

 real food utility it is eas}' to see that the demand for the date is 

 based upon sound physiological grounds. Of course much depends 

 upon becoming accustomed to any dietary regimen, and the eastern 

 nations subsist upon a food ot which we should soon tire. It would seem 

 as though no fruit grows upon which the ingenuit}' of man, civilized 

 and savage, has not been expended to produce a drink, and the date 

 is no exception, lor date paste made into an infusion with water, is 

 said to make a pleasant drink, and the sap of the tree drawn from 

 incisions in the trunk, is the so called date milk, which when fer- 

 mented makes a most potent wine. The production of date sugar 

 forms no inconsiderable industry in British India, seven to eight 

 pounds of sugar from 120 to 240 pints of the juice, being an average 

 result, the total annual yield is something like 10,000 cwt., selling 

 for one-fourth less than sugar from the cane. The dried date of our 

 markets is pleasantly laxative, and forms an agreeable addition to- 

 the dessert. The fig is a fruit which comes to us in a dried or semi- 

 dried condition, and is as cheaply within the reach of all as our most 

 common domestic fruits. Its valuable laxative properties have 

 always been recognized and utilized, and it is employed as an ingre- 

 dient of many mixtures administered for the relief of habitual consti- 

 pation, as the confection of figs and senna. Its large proportion of 

 sugar and mucilage renders it an agreeable and wholesome food, held 

 in the highest estimation in the countries where it is indigenous. 

 This appreciation of the fruit has not been developed in modern times 

 either, for we are informed that the children of Israel murmured 

 against Moses for leading them where the fig tree did not blossom. 

 The Grecian athletes made the fig their staple article of diet during, 

 their training. At Rome the dried fruit was extensively used in place 

 of bread. It is related of the fair Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra, that 

 she cherished for the fig a particular favor, possibly by reason of its 

 popular reputation for retarding the formation of wrinkles. Pliny, 

 the Roman historian, ascribes to the juice of the fig tree the property 

 of imparting a fine flavor to meat. This claim may have had some 



