The Washington herald., 1922-09-12
Mesopotamia Free of Alien
Rule After $500 Years
Kingdom of Irak Faces Prospect of Develop.
ing Into Most Stable Government
Of the Middle East.

thirty centuries or more this part OF
the country has yielded a delicious.
nutritious fruit that has become
known in almost every part of the
globe and that now every year is as
eagerly awaited in the United States
and in Europe as in Bagdad itself.
This is the date. first and most
successfully grown in Mesopotamia
and now one of the worlds staple
crops because of the widespread de-
mand for IT. its value as a food and
the fact that it can be kept indefi-
nitely without deterioration. Prac-
tically the entire life of Southern
Mesopotamia revoIves about the
date. A large part of the population
works in the date gardens or in the
packing stations where the golden
dates. the finest dates of Mesopo-
tam!a-which means of the whole
world-are prepared for shipment
to this country.
Dates form one of the staple foods
of the people; in fact, many Arabs
eat little else for months at a time
and remain in state of perfect
health. Poorer qualities of dates
are fed to horses and dogs and even
to camels and dromedaries. Dates
are Southern Mesopotamia's chief
source of wealth, and the magnifi-
cent date gardens along the Shat
el-Arab (Riyer of the Arab, some
OF which have remained in the
same family for hundreds of years.
take the place of stocks and bonded
wealth in other countries.
Mercury Rises to $50 Degrees,
The date. however, means health
as well as wealth to Mesopotamia.
Physicians who have studied the ma
tiVes of Mesopotamia attribute to
II the splendid physical condition
Of the people and their endurance,
endurance which permits them to
perform hard labor in a climate
where the temperature often rises
to 130 degrees in the shade. The
date Is not only rich in carbohy-
drates, but IL also contains an espe-
cially fine quality of food iron and
a considerable proportion of lime
and other salts.
Just as the Southern States de-
pend in large part upon their cot
ton crop and as many of the West
ern commonwealths are supported
in the same way by wheat, so
dates are not only the staff of life
In Mesopotamia. but also the index
of prosperity in the southern por-
tion of the country. Indications
are that the coming year will be
prosperous one, for harvesting of
the date crop has begun under un-
usually favorable conditions. and it
moi only large. but of excellent
cvlity.
N has been argned that the
Southern States should diversity
their crops and not depend upon
cotton alone. but the same argument
cannot be applied TO Mesopotamia,
for large parts of the country are
suitable only for growing dates.
Dates demand a very hot climate.
together with plenty of water at
the roots of the tree-an old Arab
proverb has IL that the date palm
must have Its head in fire, its roots
in water" The water in this case
is supplied from the many irriga-
tion canals which branch of from
the Shat-el-Arab and are hundreds
OF years old.
known rs Land of Dates.
So thoroughly has the date be-
come part of Mesopotamia that
this country is often called the
Land of the Date. Indeed, Arabs
say that the original Tree of Life
which stood in the Garden of Eden
was a date palm and they show
travellers a venerable date tree as
the actual Tree of Life. For 1t
was in the heart of the date coun-
try, where the Tigris and the Eu-
pirates rivers unite to form the
Shat-el-Arab, that the Garden of
Eden is supposed to have been sit
uated.
Whatever, the connection, how
ever, of the date palm with the
bygone glories of Mesopotamia, IL
becomes more and more certain
that the commercial present and
future of that country are linked
to the health-giving date that has
not been affected by the passage
of time end that has given to Per-
sian and Turk and Arab and GSeek
and Roman. to European and Aus
tralisn and American the beneft
of its nourishing. delicious meat.
What cotton is to Mississippi.
wheat to North Dakota, coffee to
Brazil, sugar to Cuba, beef to the
Argentine. mutton to Australia, the