114 THE DATE PALM. 



All the date fruits were collected from the trees on 8th 

 August 1915. When plucked from the trees, the dates were just 

 at that point of ripeness when they were ready to start softening 

 but had not yet any soft spots. They were weighed and examined 

 on 9th August for all the data in Table XXI except for the 

 percentage of cellulose. The Agricultural Chemist who kindly 

 provided the figures for this column informs me that " all the 

 dates were analysed when they were soft that is, when the 

 fermentation process of ripening was apparently complete." 



The number in the second column against each variety 

 is the least number of fruits which would turn the scales against 

 1 Ib. weight, i.e,, 1 Ib. exactly would have required a fraction 

 of a fruit less in each case. From this column it appears that 35 

 fruits of Khadrawi weighed practically as much as 61 fruits of 

 Alipur Chhohara or 118 fruits of Khaji Gadri, etc. The third 

 column shows the exact weight of the fruits in each case. The 

 fourth column gives the weight of seeds got from the number of 

 fruits against each variety, i.e., 1 Ib. approximately. It will be 

 seen from the above that the imported Arabian trees are pioducing 

 fruits which are larger ; have a less proportion of seeds in them, 

 and less fibre. They also taste better and are on the whole far 

 superior to the local fruits. The imported trees are still very- 

 young, being only planted in September, 1910, and there is the 

 possibility of their fruits improving in quality as the trees become 

 stronger. 



^ Of the fruits from the local trees, the Alipur Chhohara 

 are the best. Unfortunately there are very few trees yielding 

 this quality of fruits in the Punjab. These are ohiefly at Alipur 

 North, Muzaffargarh District. The fruits of these trees are now 

 packed like our Arabian fruits in small cardboard boxes for 

 dessert purposes and have been selling at about Ee. 0-8-0 per Ib. 

 Since our date improvement work began in the Punjab in 1909, 

 all available off-shoots of these trees have been planted out, 

 but there is still less than 100 trees of that variety growing. 

 Therefore these fruits are in no way representative of the general 

 quality of fruits produced in the Punjab. There appears to 



