SOIL AND CLIMATE. 25 



15. It is recorded that in some oases in northern latitudes 

 Effect of winds ^ e date trees fail to produce a crop if hot winds 

 do not blow frequently. Certainly the body of 

 the plant does not appear to be harmed by winds, even if they are 

 of considerable violence. The roots have great tensile strength 

 (see page 1, para. 2). The tree has a very large number of 

 them. Most descend at sharp angles, but a suitable proportion 

 of them spread out all round the stem at small angles to the 

 horizon, finally descending well into the soil ; the stem, when 

 healthy, is exceptionally difficult to break across (see page 6, 

 para. 3), and the leaves are so built that it is hardly possible for 

 the wind to break or tear them, or for the wind-driven sand to 

 abrade them (see page 7, para. 4). Indeed, although I have 

 seen sand-storms in date-growing oases against which one could 

 hardly stand upright or see a yard in front of one, and during 

 which the wind-driven sand has stripped cereal crops into frag- 

 ments leaving nothing but their stumps in the ground, I have 

 rarely seen a healthy date tree overturned or broken by wind, 

 or the leaves of one abraded by the sand. Sometimes, however, 

 the stems of old trees get broken by high winds when heavily 

 laden with fruits. 



Sandstorms may cause damage when they come at the 

 time that the fruit on the tree is in its final ripening stage and 

 the dust sticks to the fruits. Those fruits which are most sticky 

 at that period suffer most. The dust cannot be removed easily 

 from the fruits and may spoil a crop for first class market purposes. 

 In the Persian Gulf and other large date-growing locajities, damage 

 of this sort is occasionally met with. Some damage is occasionally 

 done to date fruits in the Punjab in the same way. 



16. Well-established palms do not appear to suffer from 

 excessive heat or excessive dry ness of the air 

 ^ * ne roots have a sufficient supply of water. 

 Date trees have been reported to stand as low 

 a temperature as 20 F. in winter without harm, and to be able 

 to live even where it occasionally gets as low as 12F., but when 



