202 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



Various beverages are made by pouring milk or water over 

 macerated dates and letting slight fermentation take place. 

 The sap of the plant provides a mild drink resembling coconut 

 milk, which when fermented becomes intoxicating. From cull 

 dates a strongly alcoholic liquor is distilled, which, flavored 

 with licorice or other aromatics, becomes the famous (or rather 

 perhaps, infamous) arrak, of which many subsequent travelers 

 have confirmed the verdict of the sixteenth-century voyager 

 Pedro Teixeira, himself probably no strict water-drinker, who 

 w said of it, "This is the strongest and most dreadful drink that 

 was ever invented, for all of which it finds some notable 

 drinkers." 



CULTIVATION 



While the date palm grows luxuriantly in a wide range of 

 warm climates, it is, for commercial cultivation, adapted only 

 to regions marked by high temperature combined with low 



\/ humidity. Properly speaking, it belongs to the arid subtropical 

 zone. A heavy freeze will kill back the leaves, but the plant 

 may nevertheless be as healthy as ever in a year or two. Thus, 

 date palms have withstood a temperature of only 5 above 

 zero and have borne satisfactory crops in subsequent years. 

 Ellsworth Huntington speaks of seeing the date palm in Persia 

 where twenty inches of snow lay on the ground ; many genera- 

 tions of natural selection in such an environment would doubt- 

 less produce a hardy race, but such a region would scarcely be 

 thought adapted to commercial date-growing. 



At the other climatic extreme, the date palm apparently finds 

 no limit, being at its best where the summer temperature 



\l stays about 100 for days and nights together. The combina- 

 tion of warm days with cool nights is unsatisfactory; unless 

 there is a prolonged season during which high temperatures 

 prevail night and day, the best varieties of dates will not ripen 

 successfully. 



