and then pasture their cattle on it for
awhile, to keep down the blade and induce the plant to run to ear. The
ultimate return was enormous; on the most moderate computation it
amounted to fifty-fold at the least, and often to a hundred-fold. The
modern oriental is content, even in the case of a rich soil, with a
tenfold return.

The date-palm was at once one of the most valuable and one of the most
ornamental products of the country. "Of all vegetable forms," says the
greatest of modern naturalists, "the palm is that to which the prize of
beauty has been assigned by the concurrent voice of nations in all ages."
And though the date-palm is in form perhaps less graceful and lovely than
some of its sister species, it possesses in the dates themselves a beauty
which they lack. These charming yellow clusters, semi-transparent, which
the Greeks likened to amber, and moderns compare to gold, contrast, both
in shade and tint, with the green feathery branches beneath whose shade
they hang, and give a richness to the landscape they adorn which adds
greatly to its attractions. And the utility of the palm has been at all
times proverbial. A Persian poem celebrated its three hundred and sixty
uses. The Greeks, with more moderation, spoke of it as furnishing the
Babylonians with bread, wine, vinegar, honey, groats, string and ropes of
all kinds, firing, and a mash for fattening cattle. The fruit was
excellent, and has formed at all times an important article of
nourishment in the country. It was eaten both fresh and dried, forming
in the latter case a delicious sweetmeat. The wine, "sweet but
headachy," was probably not the spirit which it is at present customary
to distil from the dates, but the slightly intoxicating drink called
_lagby_ in North Africa, which may be drawn from the tree itself by
decapitating it, and suffering the juice to flow. The vinegar was
perhaps the same fluid corrupted, or it may have been obtained from the
dates. The honey was palm-sugar, likewise procurable from the sap. How
the groats were obtained we do not know; but it appears that the pith of
the palm was eaten formerly in Babylonia, and was thought to have a very
agreeable flavor. Ropes were made from the fibres of the bark; and the
wood was employed for building and furniture. It was soft, light and
easily worked; but tough, strong and fibrous.

The cultivation of the date-palm was widely extended in Chaldaea,
probably from very earl