'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎298r] (598/862)

IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURE, AND MINOR INDUSTRY 459
The date is the sole agricultural export in which Iraq has no serious
rival; the advantages of water transport enable Iraqi dates to under
sell north African dates even in north Africa. But extension of the
supply of fresh fruit in Europe and America forced Iraqi date-
growers and packers to improve their methods in order to maintain
their exports. Government assistance has been limited to research
into the control of pests, advice on methods of cultivation, packing
and marketing, and also to advertisement. The weakness of the
Iraqi product lies in the poor quality of some of the kinds grown
and in the unattractive methods of packing commonly followed.
There are no statistics for the area planted with date-palms or for
their number. A probable estimate is between 21 and 30 million
trees in areas totalling 350 square miles. The Shatt al Arab district
extends 108 miles from Fao to Qurna with a breadth of from 1 to
2 miles along both banks (those on the left bank below Saiyid Raqir
being in Persia) and produces over half of the total crop. Five other
smaller regions average a production of 24 thousand tons each: the
lower Euphrates (Muntafiq liwa) from Qurna to Nasiriya; the Middle
Euphrates region (Hilla and Diwaniya liwas); the Husainiya canal
zone around Karbala with the desert oases of Shithatha and Rahha-
liya (p. 122); the Baghdad plantations extending for 20 miles along
the Tigris; and the Diyala canal zone and local irrigated zones of
Badra and Mandali, the latter producing the choicest dates of Iraq.
In the Shatt al Arab zone smallholdings predominate, the total area
of 112,000 acres being owned by 6,000 persons, of whom 5,500 are
smallholders.
Cotton
The principal cotton areas are in the Baghdad canal zone, particu
larly along the Yusufiya and Saqlawiya canals, the Diyala and Hilla
canal zones, around Kut on the Tigris, and on a smaller scale in
irrigable lands of Mosul province.
Though cotton is a summer crop which has long been grown in
Iraq for local purposes, its extensive cultivation for export is the
result of encouragement given since 1919 by the Department of
Agriculture and by the British Society for the Cultivation of Cotton.
This society built a ginnery at Baghdad and maintained an experi
mental cotton plantation, the success of which created great interest
in cotton growing among the cultivators of Baghdad, Diyala, and
Hilla provinces. The suitability of the soil and of the climate and the
abundance of irrigable water, with the long absence of frost and rains