PACKING- AND SHIPMENT. 29 



and from 15 to 180 piasters per hundred palms in Bassorah, according 

 to the location and bearing condition of the trees. This does not, how- 

 ever, in any sense represent the full amount of taxation to which a 

 date planter is subjected, for there are many ways by which the rate 

 of 10 to 15 per cent — which is commonly spoken of as prevailing — is 

 made up. The methods of its collection and the hindrances to quick 

 transactions form no inconsiderable part of the heavy yoke which is 

 imposed upon the Arab landowner in his own land. The large land- 

 owner suffers less proportionately than the small one, for he can pre- 

 vent the overappraisement to which the assessors subject the poor and 

 ignorant peasant. 



PACKING AND SHIPMENT OF DATES. 



Dates are no doubt one of the stickiest, most difficult fruits in the 

 world to keep clean, and the Persian Gulf varieties are perhaps par- 

 ticularly hard to pack in an attractive shape; but nevertheless the 

 stories which one hears in the region of the conditions in the packing 

 sheds and the personal uncleanliness of the men, women, and children 

 who put up the dates are enough to disgust a sensitive person and 

 to prevent his ever eating packed dates again without having them 

 washed. No old inhabitant thinks of eating a date without first thor- 

 oughly washing it in a glass of water, unless the cook has prepared it 

 beforehand, and the sale of dates in America might fall off decidedly 

 were it generally known how intimately the unwashed hands, bodies, 

 and teeth of the notably filthy Arabs often come in contact with the 

 dates which are sold by every confectioner. Shippers claim they have 

 tried better methods of packing but found that they did not pay, for 

 the Persian Gulf date is expected to be obtainable for about 5 cents a 

 pound. From the small pound boxes which were used last year it 

 would seem that the packers have not yet learned the art of making 

 them as attractive as the Algerian dates, which fetch as high as 40 

 cents for a box of less than a pound. It is probably true that the com- 

 mon varieties in this region are too full of sirup to pack well in the 

 way that such a sort as the ' ; Deglet Noor." of Algeria, is put up, but it 

 is almost certain that varieties can be found which could be treated in 

 a similar manner and could compete with this superlative sort of North 

 Africa. The length of time which the fruit is allowed to hang on the 

 tree has presumablv something to do with the stickiness of the skin, 

 for there are in Arabia dates of good quality with dry skins, which, 

 when packed in the ordinary way, are indistinguishable from the 

 ordinary sticky kinds. Under present conditions there is little pros- 

 pect of any radical change being made in the old methods of packing. 



Scarcely any of the packing firms own date plantations, but obtain 

 their dates from the Arab landowners through trusted Arab buyers. 

 Some of these buyers, who have been in the business for many years, are 



