218 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



Stored dates are likely to become infested with such common 

 enemies of stored foods as the fig-moth (Epliestia cautella 

 Walker) and the Indian meal-moth (Plodia interpunctella 

 Hiibner) . The best protection against these is a packing-house 

 that is reasonably insect-proof and is fumigated at the beginning 

 of each season. The modern methods of preparing dates for 

 the market usually include some system of disinfection which 

 kills insect eggs. It is reported that in Egypt dates for export 

 are dipped in dilute alcohol, or in alcohol and glycerine. " Dry " 

 dates can be scalded ; "soft" dates are, in America, frequently 

 pasteurized by dry heat or by fumigation. 



VARIETIES AND CLASSIFICATION 



Several thousand varieties of dates have been recognized, 

 but those which have any commercial importance are limited 

 to a few score, while those that are of real merit number only 

 a few dozen, since many kinds owe their reputation not to 

 excellence of flavor but, as do the Elberta peach and the Ben 

 Davis apple, to good shipping and keeping qualities. 



Varieties are usually classified as "soft" (or "wet") and 

 "dry." Orientals classify them by color (yellow or red, 

 before they are cured); by keeping quality; and as "hot" 

 and "cold," according to whether a long-continued diet of them 

 "burns" the stomach or not. 



The classification of "soft" and "dry" (which sometimes 

 has been complicated and confused by the insertion of an inter- 

 mediate class of "semi-dry") is commercially convenient, but 

 not absolute; for practically any soft date may become a 

 dry date under certain atmospheric conditions, and most 

 dry dates can be made soft by proper management and arti- 

 ficial maturation. 



The dry dates predominate in most parts of North Africa, 

 including Egypt, being preferred by the nomads because they 



