The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-29
NEW HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL D. 1902

known as the "River Country,
 amounts in a good year to two hundred
 thousand tons. Let it be noted, for the
 satisfaction of those who are panic-
 stricken at the spasmodic theories of
 dilettante pessimists concerning the de-
 cline of British commerce and prestige,
 that the comparative prosperity of this
 section of the Sultan's empire Is abso-
 lutely owing to British enterprise. Our
 Bagdad- -Bassorah steamship line Is the
 very life of the whole district which,
 rundred years ago, notwithstanding its
 boundless natural fertility, was steeped
 in misery. Our steamers go right up
 the Tigris to Bagdad, at which old city
 of the Arabian Nights is generally to
 be found a British gunboat England
 comes first in the scale of commerce
 with the Jezirah; the American mar
 ket takes the next place, immense
 quantities of the best dates being shipped to New York and Baltimore.
 Beautiful in the extreme is the date
 forest. The date-palm is garden poem. There is nothing of the sombre green of the olive and nothing of the monotonous depth of the verdure of the orange foliage in this unique tree, the darling of the Arab cultivator. The mutation of tint-effects is infinite, and enraptures the artistic eye The gor- geous colors of the Oriental sunrise seem to dance tremendously on the viv- idly green pendulous fronds. Those long lanceolate leaves at the meridian cast network of dark shadows, in which the Arab loves to plant his dusky tent or to rig up a rough little booth. The hot desert glare renders the refuge welcome in those long groves where, like cathedral pillars, the symmetrical columns soar up. The stems reach va rying heights between fifty and eighty feet before branch curves forth. Then the huge feathery crowns shoot out, droQpng with matchless grace on all sides. The leaves are commonly ten feet in length.
 The Mesopotamian and Jezirah Arabs have during the last two decades dis covered what a mine of wealth they possess in the plantations, and they have taken eagerly to the process of careful cultivation. New extensions are each year opened up, and irriga- tion is rapidly increasing. The vitality of the tree is extraordinary. Many specimens live a hundred years The most singular process in the culture is the marriage of the palms" which, in the blossoming period of springtide, gives the date-gardener plenty to do if he would have a fine crop. The male trees, or pistillate palms, are much more numerous than the staminate. To accelerate the fertilization the hus- bandman must climb tree after tree and sprinkle the pollen while the bloom is at the fullest.
 Thus the region which is additionally the cradle of the human race, reputed to carry hidden in its bosom the site of the lost Paradise, nurtures with prodigal generosity real tree of physical life for the people who still haunt its TO- mantle plains and encamp beside it's splendid rivers. No Arab ever has a meal if he can help it, of which dates do not form a part But this date is food-tree even apart from the actual ripe fruit A delicious Viand Is pre- pared from. the terminal buds of the trunk, which are of great size, and pos 1Soo dii e'liii'il'' ilt' WI i'iO 'iiiN 7''A A made from old dates, and so also Is delicate kind of sprup much prized by a race who are positive epieures with re- gard to sweets and dietetic commodi- ties The hard elongated stones of the fruit are ground up for cattle food is wasted, When the grand old tree comes to it's death every parti- cle is utilized From beginning to end the Arab knows how to make the ut most of his resources derived from his date -garden.-St, James Gazette.