18 PERSIAN GULF DATES. 



to enable designs to be made of regulators and escapes, weirs and looks, syphons and 

 superpassages, and all the details which accompany a well-conceived project. Such 

 works it will take a couple of years to collect; but I have not considered it unwise, 

 with the aid of experience and prescience acquired in a lifetime of devotion to 

 irrigation works, to make a rough preliminary estimate of what such works would 

 cost and what would be their probable results, so as to encourage capital to pay for 

 the collection of that detailed information whose outlines I have just described. 

 The area of first-class land, waiting only for water to yield at once a handsome 



return, I estimate as follows: 



Acres. 



West of the old Tigris 280, 000 



Between the old and new Tigris 160, 000 



East of the Tigris, north of Bagdad 420, 000 



East of the Tigris, south of Bagdad 420, 000 



Total 1, 280, 000 



The cost of the works, discounting all assets, I estimate roughly as follows: 

 Main canal, 200 kilometers by 500 square meters cubic meters. . 100, 000, 000 



Earthwork, main canal £2, 000, 000 



Weirs on the Tigris 600, 000 



Masonry works, main canal, one-half the earthwork 1, 000, 000 



Minor canals, 1,280,000 acres, at £3 per acre. 3, 840, 000 



Total ....". 7, 440, 000 



Add contingencies 560, 000 



Grand total 8, 000, 000 



Cost per acre (£8,000,000^1,280,000) £7 



Value of the land (1,280,000 acres, at £30) 38, 400, 000 



Rent per annum (1,280, 000 acres, at £3) 3, 840, 000 



If of this sum nearly half is spent in maintenance of the canals, we have a net 

 return of £2,000,000 per annum, or 25 per cent on £8,000,000 of capital. Let those 

 who know Egypt say whether they consider such figures as too sanguine. 



The date region of the island of Bahrein is watered by several most 

 remarkable springs, the fresh water of which must reach the island by- 

 submarine water courses. The largest of these springs is 100 feet 

 across and 27 feet deep, and flows a 2-mile-an-hour stream, with a cross 

 section of 2 by 8 feet, or about 16,000 gallons per minute. This spring 

 alone waters, the British vice-consul, Mr. Gaskin, states, about a half 

 million date palms and if complete^ utilized could water almost as 

 many more. 



In Hassa, on the mainland, tnere are underground water courses, 

 and the date palms which furnish the famous Khalasa date probably 

 get their water from these underground sources. Zwemer describes 

 vast areas in this region, now quite destitute of vegetation, where 3 or 

 4 feet below the surface an abundance of sweet water is obtainable/' 



The river Lowadi flows through Minab, and the plantations of this 

 date region are irrigated b} T it, according to the statement of a resident 

 of Bunder Abbas, the nearest port. 



Zwemer, S. M. Arabia, the Cradle of Islam. New York, 1901, p. 112. 



