'35/149 I (A 67) Batineh date trade. Dowson's reports' [‎59r] (123/164)

'■■ ■s.,;: - v.-:'.
Perhaps i^inthe Iraq^a big shoot is necessary,so tjbat the
root may "be beneath the surface salt, 50 to 75 % are said
to surrive.
¥istte ax vll* Toung Umta SiXlah Off scoots at Sib *
'• 1 ']■' ^ . ' > ■ f
fhese siaall shoots are sometimes planted
in niirsery beds,q,albah^albat. They are much less israpped up e
Jliuin those of the Iraq probably because winter in the Batanah
and near the coait brings no frost and because in summer there
is no or less tearing raging scorching blasting dust laden,
Iraqi Shamal the !•¥• wind from the burnt up desert. The off g
shoots are planted nearly always in pits.Perhaps this is becatJ
the pits provide shelter^perhaps because the roots get nearer
the sub-soil water but more likBay it is sD that the roots are
buried firmly innthe light soil and are anchored against
high winds.Many are the palms seen supported by palm buttresse
Sometimes a palm likely to fal is held in place by a stone wa
wall tour feet high and six feet in diameter•The space between
the boll and the wal is filled in with ramsied earth.
On the whole planting is less regular than i
in the Shatt al ^rab district though in some gardens,the palms
are set rightly at the corners of squares,,The uneTeness of the!
land may be contributary cause of irregular planting though th<
same excuse does not hold for the Batanah,
The price of off shoots of most of the comsi
mon varieties is twenty or thirty Pai or about 5c each;but
i'aradh off shoots command twiipe that.
Pla^e xxviii, Qfi shoots %gg3Xanted in pits in a garden of
ffaradh palms at Sifalaiu ^
A seeding is known as Qash.In the Iraq
a seeding is known as Diqalahjwhile in Morocco^Algeria and
Tunisia in addition to this weed,Khalt is also used.
Manuring is practiced. c amel dung is the
favourite application, Dr• Popence sts^^es that manuring is
annualoJfiebuhr states that fish offal is used for manure. From
what the present writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. observed aftervthe goats ,cows,donkeys
and asi the Greeks would say) other birds liad finished with
the fish,there remained very little offal,In Korth Africa and 1
thru the date palm zone to Persia, the dead fronds are cut off
close and distally to the swollen base,In a tears time the
swollen base now hard and dry is cut of close to the trunk and
used for firewood. In Oman the swollen base is not cut off perl
perhaps because the Shuma^ and other tress provide anywhere
abundant fuel,Similarly in the Punjab the bases are left on the
palm©In California also the frond bases were not cut until re
c jntljuSons apprension was felt when it was observed that root
were growing out of the trunks underneath the frond bases,and
were pushing the latter off,jS l rom what appeared in the WadiS^ame
where roots could be found commonly founi pushing off the frond
bases to a height of six feet from the ground,this root product
is not han.iful to the palm,The frond abses once pushed off, the
aerial roots dry up and drop off. The trui^k is called Garidah
when alive but when dead and cut up for the carpenter it is as-
called Crarduah,
In the Iraq Gadhuah is the trunk alive or (
dead while Jaridah is the frond midrib,0f,the district of the
Jarid in Tunisia*The frond in the V^adi ^amayil is «urah pi. 3*ur
*
fh€ vigour of the bamayii palms is astound
ing. The average height is half as high again as that of the '
laqi palms fronds twenty long are common and trunks were seen "v
which looked three feet in diameter, though they ww* not measui
And there are the palms which have been subjected to a nine
PalE1 ! in the <irier P arts of the oases have
died but not a large portion of the whole.