Irrigation Is Performed In The Spring, And Through The Whole Summer.
The
water is drawn by small channels from the stream to each individual
tree, around the stalk and root of which a little basin is made and
fenced round with clay, so that the water, when received, is detained
there until it soaks into the earth.
(All irrigation is, indeed,
effected in this way.) As to the abundance of the plantations, the fruit
of one plantation alone producing fifteen hundred camels' loads of
dates, or four thousand five hundred quintals, three quintals to the
load, is not unfrequently sold for one thousand dollars. Besides the
Jereed, Tafilett, in Morocco, is a great date-country. Mr. Jackson says,
"We found the country covered with most magnificent plantations, and
extensive forests of the lofty date, exhibiting the most elegant and
picturesque appearance that nature on a plain surface can present to the
admiring eye. In these forests, there is no underwood, so that a
horseman may gallop through them without impediment."
Our readers will see, when they come to the Tour, that this description
of the palm-groves agrees entirely with that of Mr. Reade and Captain
Balfour. I have already mentioned that the palm is male and female, or,
as botanists say, _dioecious_; the Moors, however, pretend that the palm
in this respect is just like the human being. The _female_ palm alone
produces fruit and is cultivated, but the presence or vicinity of the
_male_ is required, and in many oriental countries there is a law that
those who own a palm-wood must have a certain number of _male_ plants in
proportion.
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