164 DATEGROWING 



dates of North Africa, while they are softer and more 

 agreeable to the palate as well. Asharasi is probably 

 as good a dry date as the world has produced, and 

 there are half a dozen soft dates which are as good as 

 anything in North Africa, with the possible exception 

 of Deglet Ntir. 



The dates of the interior of Arabia are not 

 sufficiently well known to us to allow of being broadly 

 characterized, but from accounts of native acquaint- 

 ances I am inclined to think that the dates of Madina, 

 the center of culture, average up with those of 

 Baghdad. 



The scientific grower in the United States should 

 have a variety of sorts, but he must naturally pick 

 them out with intelligence. If he cultivates Deglet 

 Nur he needs no more late dates, and should off- 

 set it with some of the early ones from the Persian 

 Gulf or the Egyptian delta. If he has early varieties 

 he should add some of the later ones from North 

 Africa. Other things being equal, an early date is 

 to be preferred to a late one, because its fruit will get 

 on the market before any foreign fruit can arrive and 

 lower prices by competition. 



Furthermore, he should not confine himself 

 exclusively either to dry dates or soft dates, for, while 

 the latter is the type now familiar to the American 

 public, the dry sorts rarely fail to make friends, and 

 there seems every reason to suppose that a market 

 can be made for them without difficulty. On this 

 point the grower is as competent to decide for himself 

 as is anyone else for him; but it is worth noting that 

 when samples of dates were offered to visitors, at an 

 exhibition in Coachella Valley, and each was asked to 

 express his preference, sixty per cent of them indicated 



