THE DATE PALM. 



are to be grown than there are growing at present, but any one 

 who has seen the large tracts of waste land lying along the sides 

 of the rivers in these four districts will readily understand 

 that the above estimate would fade into insignificance if only 

 a small proportion of these wastes were planted with good 

 date palms. Hundreds of square miles of lands which are at 

 present yielding practically nothing would then become among 

 the most remunerative in India (see page 117, para. 88), and the 

 people would be supplied with a most sustaining food easily 

 transported and capable of being preserved by the most simple 

 means for many months. In districts the climates of which 

 are suitable for date-growing and where the subsoil water or 

 irrigation arrangements, etc., are suitable, those farmers who 

 have no right to the waste lands referred to, can share in the 

 benefits of date-farming by planting date trees along the borders 

 of their fields, roadsides, water channels, etc. Then there is the 

 possibility that we may be able to improve date culture in the 

 districts mentioned or extend it to other districts by introducing 

 varieties of dates which will ripen before or after the rainy season 

 or by other means under consideration. 



Fruits grown from good trees in the Punjab have been sold 

 for far more than 1 anna per Ib. (see page 115, para. 86), and it 

 seems to me that any one who cares to take a little trouble to 

 farm his plantation and cure his fruits properly could make very 

 much more profit out of them for many years to come than is 

 shown from my calculations based on that price. 



99. Perhaps some one will suggest, however, that if date- 

 farming became extensive in the Punjab, the 

 >Ve of P dates Ct ' market would be glutted with the fruits. I do not 



think so. In date-growing countries, dates often 

 form more than half the food of the people. They are delicious 

 to taste and would be preferred to many common foods by both 

 rich and poor in any country. As already stated they are a 

 most sustaining food. I have been in company with men who 

 have walked 20 to 30 miles per day for hundreds of miles 

 on end, with nothing to eat but an occasional handful of date 



