98 
THE DATE PALM FOR QUEENSLAND. 
The fig, pomegranate, and apricot, and sometimes the olive, 
are grown as auxiliary crops. I would suggest also the water 
melon, pumpkin, vegetable marrow, and lucerne. 
Varieties. 
Dr. James Eichardson in a letter in “ Hooker’s Journal 
of Botany,” Vol. II, writing of the dates of Fezzan, de- 
scribes forty-six varieties. Nineteen-twentieths of the inhabi- 
tants of Fezzan during nine months of the year live on dates. 
In Northern Arabia there are more than a hundred kinds of 
dates, each of which is peculiar to a district, and has its own 
special virtues. Many varieties of dates exist, differing in shape, 
size, and colour of the fruit. Those of Gomera are large, and 
contain no seed. The Zadie variety produces the heaviest crop, 
averaging in full bearing trees SOOlbs. to the tree. Professor 
Naudin states that the variety Datheres-sifia ripens its fruit early 
in the season. The Deglet nour is considered the best for 
keeping. 
Tebatjient op Feuits. 
Four or five months after the operation of fecundation has 
been performed the dates begin to swell, and when they have 
attained nearly their full size (about the beginning of August) 
they are caiefully tied to the base of the leaves to prevent them 
from being beaten and bruised by the wind. If meant to be 
preserved they are gathered a little before they are ripe, but 
when they are intended to be eaten fresh they are allowed to 
ripen perfectly, in which state they are vei’y agreeable and 
refreshing. Ripe dates cannot be kept any length of time or 
conveyed to any very great distance without fermenting and 
becoming acid, and therefore those whith are intended for storing 
up or for beuig caiiied to a distant market are dried in the sun on 
mats. They are sent in this way to Europe from the Levant 
an Baibar}, Each tree is capable of yielding only a certain 
number of good fruits, and on adult trees not more than twelve 
bunches are left to ripen. The whole cluster of fruit is cut 
before it is quite ripe, when it is put into a basket made for the 
purpose, having no other opening than a hole through which 
the branching extremity of the cluster projects. In this situation 
the dates ripen successively. 
