DATE-GROWING. 117 



tree in the Punjab, the Multan Gazetteer dated 1901-02 informs 

 us as follows : 



' It is difficult to say what the average produce of a full 

 grown tree may be. At the recent settlement the produce 

 recovered by the owner, or baikhar after deducting payment in 

 kind and miscellaneous losses was assumed to be 30 seers (61 J Ib.) 

 of green dates in Kabirwala, and 20 seers (41 Ib.) in other tahsils." 

 From the rather meagre information, which we have been able 

 to collect so far, the above seems to be as near an estimate as we 

 will get until the Government plantations at Multan, Muzaffar- 

 garh, and elsewhere are in full bearing. 



88. When a young plantation is laid down as advised 

 in para. 39, page 77, the trees, channels, etc., 



Gross income 



from date pianta- need not take up more ground than a strip 

 4 feet in width for each line of trees, although 

 they are more often allowed to take up a strip of 5 feet in 

 width. If they are restricted to a width of 4 feet and the lines 

 of trees are 16*4 feet apart therefore only 4/16*4 or J approxi- 

 mately of the land will be occupied by the date plants and 

 the remaining f should be available for the cultivation 

 of other crops (see para. 46, page 83). Even more of the land 

 can be utilised in this way if cabbage or other suitable plants 

 are planted along the inner edges of the channels between the 

 trees. These crops may bring a considerable return from the 

 land right from the time that the plantation is laid down. Until 

 the trees become established, however, a disadvantage when the 

 plantation is on a large scale is that bullocks cannot be used to 

 plough and work the land between the rows of trees without 

 risk of knocking the trees about and thus harming them. When 

 the date plants become established this danger ceases. Regarding 

 the time which will elapse before the trees will bear fruits it will 

 be seen from para. 84, page 111, that a few trees in our plantations 

 at Multan and Muzaffargarh came into flower and bore a few 

 fruits in the second year after planting, and that the number 

 increased until in the past year (the fifth year after planting) 

 45 per cent, of the trees bore fruits. In the same paragraph it is 



