292 

 DATE. 



HISTORY. 



The Date is one of the most useful plants to mankind in the warm arid 

 regions of Africa and Asia, as it will thrive in localities where no other 

 serviceable tree can grow. It is the only useful tree found upon the 

 margins of the great African and other deserts, and it occupies large 

 tracts of country exclusively. This plant also occupies the oasis or fertile 

 spots in these deserts, and affords the only vegetation that is to be found 

 in many of tho^e localities. It also furnishes the only food plant that is 

 to be met with in these arid regions. Dates are the fruit of a Palm 

 known to botanists as Phoenix dactylifera which is indigenous to North 

 Africa, Arabia, Egypt, Persia* Palestine and other parts of Asia. It 

 attains a height of from sixty to eighty feet, and exceptionally over one 

 hundred. There are no branches, arid the stems are surmounted with a 

 crown of leaves. The Date Palm is dioecious, which means that there 

 are both male and female plants, the flowers of the former being 

 somewhat ths larger. The flower branches or spikes spring from the 

 base of the leaves and are at first enclosed in sheaths or spathes. A full- 

 grown tree bears annually from six to ten bunches of fruit, each weighing 

 from twelve to twenty pounds. Sometimes a single bunch will consist 

 of over two hundred Dates, and yields up to four hundred weight are 

 recorded, from a single tree. The Date Palrn attains a great age, and it 

 is said that plantations two hundred years old have yielded heavy crops. 



USES. 



The Date Palm is utilised in a variety of ways in those countries 

 where its cultivation is general. In Barbery, Egypt, Turkey, Arabia and 

 Persia, Dates are the principal article of food for the bulk of the people. 

 In fact the Date crops are of as much importance to the inhabitants of 

 these countries as the grain harvest in other regions. When the Date 

 harvest is secured there is great rejoicing and it is the principal operation 

 from an agricultural point of view. The fruit is eaten fresh when in 

 season, and dried for the remainder of the year. It is very nourishing as 

 it contains about 58 per cent of saccharine matter. Drying is effected 

 by spreading the fruit upon mats and exposing it to the sun. For full 

 details as to the process of drying, see special remarks upon the subject 

 page 69. The fruit by pressure yields a rich syrup, which when mixed 

 with water and fermented makes an intoxicating liquor, and from this a 

 strong spirit is obtained by distillation. But not only does the Date 

 Palm prove serviceable by means of its fruit, as its sap can also be 

 utilized. This sap when dried yields sugar, by fermentation an 

 intoxicating liquor, and when distilled a spirit known us arrack in India. 

 The extraction of the sap however, is destructive to the trees, and is 

 usually only practised with those that are unfruitful, or to reduce the 

 number when they are growing too thickly. In extracting the sap 

 the most usual method is to cut off the crowns when the plants are in 



