THE DATE 201 



doubtedly adapted to this culture ; but experimental attempts 

 with it on the Rio Grande in Texas have been abandoned. 

 Arizona and California offer the best fields for date-growing 

 in the United States, and in the Coachella Valley of California 

 (a part of the Colorado River basin) conditions are particularly 

 favorable. Residents of this valley are not exceeding the truth 

 in asserting it to be the center of scientific date-growing at the 

 present time. 



Dates consist mainly of sugar, cellulose, and water. An 

 average sample of fruits on the American market will show in 

 percentages : l carbohydrates 70.6 per cent, protein 1 .9 per cent, 

 fat 2.5 per cent, water 13.8 per cent, ash (mineral salts) 1.2 per 

 cent, and refuse (fiber) 10.0 per cent. Cane-sugar is found in 

 dates ; in a few varieties this is partly or wholly inverted by the 

 time the fruit is fully ripe. 



A diet of dates is obviously rich in carbohydrates but lacking 

 in fats and proteins. It is, therefore, by no accident that the 

 Arabs have come to eat them habitually with some form of 

 milk. This combination makes an almost ideal diet, and some 

 tribes of Arabs subsist on nothing but dates and milk for months 

 at a time. 



By Arabs, as well as by Europeans, the date is commonly 

 eaten uncooked. Unsalted butter, clotted cream, or sour milk 

 is thought to "bring out the flavor'' and render the sugar less 

 cloying. The commonest way 'of cooking dates is by frying 

 them, chopped, in butter. 



For native consumption around the Persian Gulf and in 

 India, immature dates are boiled and then fried in oil. Jellies 

 and jams are made from dates, and the fruit is also preserved 

 whole. Again, they may be pounded into a paste with locusts 

 (grasshoppers) and various other foodstuffs. The soft kinds 

 are tightly packed into skins or tins, when they are easily 

 transported and will keep indefinitely. 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bull. 28. 



