'35/149 I (A 67) Batineh date trade. Dowson's reports' [‎17r] (39/164)

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4n Borth Africa. RA.TAB dates are those wiiicli have developed "be-
yondthe iaiA-UA-L stage and the flesh has softened. The dated
are now syrupy and sticky. On further drying, the dates become
-AiuAja , firmer aid dar:er than the RATAB. In Oman, TAI^AR are call
ed SAH. Dates picked in the HATAB stage go had in a few days: in
the TAMAR stage, they keep for elser, if protected from insects,
because of the high sugar concentration. In the Samayil ff on the
7th June, KHALAL were common, and had been so for ober a week;
but ti ey had not yet begun to soften into RATAB. It was not until
the first week in July that any a HA-UAL were seen in the Basrah
market. These were KAILAwI, selling at eight annas a HIK^AI^i.e,
6.4 a lb. The earliest date^ in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Bamayil are thus six
weeks earlier that the earliest in Basrah. In the Batanah, they a
are probably two months earlier. It is stated that Oman has
-ilAML and RATAB dates for five months in the year, beginning
with HAG t I j AL and QA-SH BATASH, and anding with the winter varieties
of xJiASAB AMfi HIliALI. In -^asrah, the season is between four and
five months long, beginning with BRAIH and ending with 3HASAB.
Cooked uates.
Ther is a great tazade in cooked BISIR, in the Ira; ,
called KiiAULu MARBUKHf in Persia ilHABAiC, The MABA.SLI variety
is that which is most commonly cooked; but there are mai.y other
varieties? amongst which are the BA.TM and the UMMI, The export
of these cooked dates is almost all to India; and they, and other
(BEAIM AliD CHIBCBAB) from Basrah, can be found in most north
Indian -bazars.
PLATS XXXI. Purnace for Cooking Dates at Sifalah. The Pour
Pillars are Designed to Support a Roof over the
Cooking Pots. To the ^eft is the Chimney.
diseases.
In the Baranah, the majority of palm boils are more
or less scored with borer holes and, in some cases, are half
eaten away.
IBytranychus . the wei- spinning, red, spider was met
with rarely, most commcnly in the dry, northern end of iQiubar.
A disease called MAKAQ, was well known, but no afflic
ted palms were seen. It was said that a honey-like substance
covers the date bunches and spoils them.
Yield,
The yield of palms this year in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Samayil is
probauly tweice that of those in the Shatt al Arab district. If
50 lb. a palm be the average yield i)er palm in the 3a tter loca
tion, in the former, it might be put at 100 lb., and, in the
Batanah, at 75 lb. The commonest number of spadices, or fruit
bunches, AS^AH, pl.ASA^, in the Iraq, ATIiftAE and ATHAQ,, in the
aaraayil, was 9. The average per palm was perhaps 8. In the Ba
tanah, there were gardens where the yield appeared truly extra
ordinary. In some of these particular gardens, no palm had less
than 12 to 15 bunches, and each bunch would have weighed at
harvest about lb lb. In the very best gardens of Basrah also, t
ther are palms, HALIAWI, which are stated to produce loO lb. of
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III
iruit annually. A hundred palms such as theue would thus produce
more sugar in an acre than is produced by the same area of the
finest sugar cane grown under pptimum conditions.
What is the total yield of dates, as cooked BISIR and
as SAH, is a question for the solution of wHbh the data are of
the scantiest. If the previously suggested figures for yield
and numbers be prorisionaj-ly accepted, t-ie the 2,b00,000 palms.
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