‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Agency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1883-84.’ [‎51r] (41/166)

EESIDENCY AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. FOR 1883-84.
39
APPENDIX B TO PART III.
SUPPLEMENTABY NOTES ON CAKE AND CULTUEE OP DATE TREES AND PEUIT.
[Videpage 43 of Administration 'Report for 1877-781]
In districts wliere date plantations are large and on extensive scales, tlie cultivators do
not tliiak seriously of the comparatively small loss, caused by the depredations of wasps,
sparrows, crows, " bulbuls/"' &c., on the sweet date fruit while forming on the palm, and as
a rule do not provide against sugar-loving insects and birds, and grudge them not a share of
the fruit. They say that in the good old times the cultivators were more liberal-minded,
when the export trade of the date to European countries and America did not exist, and those
countries had not acquired a taste for this fruit; that then any number of strangers could go
to a plantation and treat themselves acl libitum to any quantity of date fruit they liked,
without objection. But times have changed. The demand for the fruit having largely
increased, it is more taken care of, and strangers are not allowed to indulge in those liberties.
But I believe that all this apparent indifference to the encroachments of the aforesaid
creatures cannot be solely attributed to their alleged magnanimity and charitable feelings for
them—at least in these days whan the fruit has a market value; but that their indolence and
the actual difficulty, perhaps costliness, of the measures to provide against these inroads must
explain a great deal. The ordinary wants of these people are few and simple; they are
satisfied with what little they get, and are content to live on the same; as a result their
inventive faculties are not taxed for devising means against such sources of loss, which
certainly cannot be considered of no moment. But if the case was otherwise, and the struggle
for life was as great as in European countries, protective measures would doubtless be fast
forthcoming, simply because " necessity is the mother of invention/-' In places where the
date palms are few, and some choice dates are concerned, the date bunch is put into a gunny
bag and the mouth of the bag closed up and tied securely at the lower part of the date spadix,
to prevent the depredations of those insects and birds. At Bustak, Gowda, Jenna, and other
inland districts on the Persian mainland, where dry hot winds prevail, the cultivators allow
the fruit to ripen and dry on the palm, and with a view to protect it from the injurious effects
of very dry and hot winds as soon as the date has become sweet, but before it has commenced
to soften and become juicy, they wrap up the whole bunch, the stalk of which being already
sufficiently bent down for purposes of easy manipulation, in the leafy twigs of a perennial
bush called " salm, ^ and, securely tying the leafy covering, leave the bunch until jit is finally
cut down when the date has ripened and formed. This method gives also a good deal of
protection against the inroads of birds and wasps.
In some districts, as those of Minab, sometimes bears prove destructive to the fruit; but
the cultivator effectually provides against their climbing up by tying a quantity of some
thorny bush or twigs of samr (thorny acacia) or koona (zyzyphus) around the stem of the
palm at some height from the ground.
Against a flight of locusts he is perfectly helpless; all his attempts at driving them away,
by beating about among the palms with dry date leaves, and agitating them to cause a rustling
noise, &c., and his burning quantities of hay, tamarisk branches, and other rubbish to create
smoke, prove of little or no avail; as, when the locusts alight and squat, they completely
devour the fruit and leave the palm, in a short space of time, divested of its leafy appendages.
There are two principal forms in which the date fruit is cured and prepared for commercial
purposes,— viz., (1), "khoorma," soft and juicy; (2) "kharak-pookhta," dry and firm.
The following is the usual mode adopted for preparing "khoorma" for commercial
purposes : —
As soon as the dates become ripe and juicy, they are picked off the tree and gathered into
a round chunam tank called "madibsah," where they are exposed to the sun and air, and
throw off the excess of juice which runs through the aperture at the bottom of the
" madibsah," and collects in a separate jar, buried underground to receive it. After two or
three days' exposure, when the date has sufficiently hardened and formed, it is removed and
packed in date-leaf baskets for exportation. Sometimes, when the owner does not find a ready
purchaser, he stores the date baskets in a close-plastered room called "kandool" in piles of 15
to 20 baskets; the floor is furnished with channels which convey the juice thrown off under
the mutual pressure of the bags, to a large jar buried underground. Sometimes the juice is