336 
The gathering, curing, and packing is of the simplest. Varieties 
of the Deglet Noor type become, when ripe, self-candied on the trees. 
They are either picked singly from the bunch as they ripen, or else 
the whole bunch, weighing 10 to 20 pounds and even more, is cut 
off when the majority of the dates show signs of ripening, and hung 
up for a few days in a dry and shady place. The best fruit is picked 
and arranged in layers in neat light boxes holding from one to ten 
pounds. 
The syrupy sorts, such as the Rhars, are not so easily handled. 
The Arabs hang up the bunches, and collect the sweet juice that 
drains off, and which they call date honey, into jurs; the drier fruit 
being subsequently packed tightly in boxes, skins, or straw bags, 
and exported. 
From the foregoing it will be seen that the cultivation of the 
date palm is one particularly suited to the arid regions of Western 
Australia, where the summer is hot and long, and where water— 
even not of a particularly fresh deseription—is often obtainable at 
a shallow depth. They do best when grown on moist ground and are 
often set on places where there is standing water a few feet from 
the surface. 
A profitable market is within our reach in supplying the re- 
quirements of Australia; but nothing but the best varieties should 
be planted. 
The Forestry Department has in several instances supplied ex- 
ploring expeditions with a quantity of dates, the seeds of which 
have been sown at soaks in the interior where water is found at the 
surface; but sufficient is known of the date to doubt whether the 
trees which have been issued from these seeds will equal in merit 
some of the varieties mentioned. 
The local government of Algeria have on several occasions gen- 
crously assisted in procuring for other countries some of the best 
dates grown within that province, and from that source consign- 
ments of suckers could well be drawn. It is important, should such 
introduction be made, that these suckers be dipped into water for a 
day on arrival, and then fumigated by means of hydroecyanie acid 
gas, in order to destroy the date scales (Parlatoria victrir), one of 
the most troublesome pests of that useful tree. 
Even in their natural home in Northern Africa, and particularly 
in Algeria, I have not seen finer date palms than those growing on 
the Gascoyne, around Roebourne, and at Beagle Bay. 
At Pyramid, Sherlock, Mallina, Portrea, and Boodaree Stations, 
without mentioning Woodbrook, Tambray, Millstream, and others I 
could not visit, the date palms proved itself the best fruit and orna- 
mental tree grown. 
The suckers of Algerian palms I introduced seventeen venrs ago 
from Biskra in Algeria, are now vood sized trees at Portrea (F. 
