THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 167 



tree. This is particularly true of soft dates like 

 Ghars, and the fact that one grower has found that 

 it did not keep well must not be allowed to condemn it 

 without a fair trial. 



Arabs have an interesting classification of dates 

 into hot and cold, according to whether a long con- 

 tinued diet of them "burns" the stomach or not.* 

 This has some importance to a people who eat three 

 or four pounds a day for six months at a stretch — 

 for the American public it has none. In Mesopotamia, 

 Khustawi is universally considered the coldest date 

 known; Barban, at Baghdad, is considered the hottest, 

 but is valued nevertheless because it ripens so early. 

 As a matter of fact, not only most varieties, but most 

 choice varieties, are considered hot. Among the cold 

 ones are Khadhrawi, Sukkari, Shukkar, Amir Hajj, 

 and Sukkar Nabat, while Maktum and Badrahi are 

 placed in an intermediate class, neither hot nor cold, 

 but satisfactory for general use. Asharasl, Tabirzal, 

 Halawf, Zahidi, Barhi, and most of the other dates of 

 suflBcient importance to receive any classification, 

 are considered hot. In North Africa Deglet Nur 

 and Thuri would perhaps be considered the hottest, 

 and Ghars, Yatimeh and Makantishi the coldest. 



Since dates grow under a wide variety of 

 conditions, one might easily classify them as to 

 whether they come from a sandj^ clayey, or loamy 

 soil, but this seems to me not worth while, since it 

 has so little bearing on their behavior in America. 

 Dates from the heavy adobe silt of Busreh seem to do 

 fully as well in a light sandy loam in Coachella Valley 

 as they do in their native home. The question of 



'Attention was first called to this classification by C. Niebuhr 

 in his "Voyage en Arable," vol. II. Amsterdam, 1770-80. 



