DATE-FRUITS. 153 



and a little native bread. This was the fare of these men for 

 many months each year, and they were as fit on it as any one 

 could be on the most carefully selected food. Unlike most 

 fruits, dates are, as already stated, so easily and simply preserved 

 for many months that the question of an immediate market 

 is not of vital importance. It seems to me that what is required 

 to prevent a glut in their case is (a) their qualities as a food should 

 be widely known, and (6) there shall be suitable facilities for their 

 transport to markets. The great advances that have been made 

 of late years in facilities for travel, transport of goods, and inter- 

 communication among different peoples have already made date- 

 f ruits known practically all over the world ; therefore, there would 

 be no difficulty in selling dates in any market. As regards 

 (6) we have the Punjab rivers and a most excellent system of 

 railways throughout the whole of India now, opening up to us 

 a market of over 300,000,000 people in India alone. All the 

 dates that are grown in the Punjab at present are simply swallowed 

 up as soon as they are ripe by the people near where the dates 

 are grown, and I have met people in the eastern side of the 

 province who did not know that dates could be grown in the 

 Punjab. Also Punjab date-fruits are only seen for a very short 

 time after they are harvested. I feel sure that the population 

 of the Punjab alone could consume many multiples of the quan- 

 tities already consumed. In years of short crops or of famine 

 owing to want of rain, dates would be at their best and would be 

 very acceptable indeed. The extraordinarily high temperature, 

 the extremely dry atmosphere and the plentiful supply of soil 

 water required to grow dates successfully, is a combination 

 extremely difficult to find and limits date cultivation to a very 

 few places on the face of the earth. 



D. MILNE, 



Economic Botanist, Punjab, Lyallpur. 



