not be difficult to make in this dry climate, requiring only splitting of the nuts, drying and separation of the dried flesh. Finding a market for so small a quantity might be difficult. Local extraction of the oil might be feasible with a small press, and the residue could be used as a cattle feed, but unless a high price is obtainable locally for the oil it is not likely to be very profitable. Something might be done with the coir fibre which can be obtained by retting the husk in water after the nut has been extracted, and then beating the retted husks to get out the fibre. I am asking the Tropical Products Institute for advice on the whole question. Meantime it might be useful if some rough e stimate could be made of the quantity of nuts produced annually. Fully grown palms that are irrigated could be expected to yield perhaps 40 to 80 nuts a year, young trees less and unirrigated trees possibly much less. 19. The third local resource that should be capable of some develop ment is vegetable and fruit production for local consumption. Climatic conditions are different from those of the Gulf states farther north, but many of the vegetables that grow there could be successfully produced at Salalah, and the warmer winter and cooler and moister summer may enable some products to be grown at a season when they are not available in the Gulf or the Batina coast. There is no substi tute for local experiments to find out what is possible and which are the best varieties to grow, and these are in hand at the new experi mental plot. There should be no great difficulty in extending the present rather limited range of produce by trying out varieties that have been successful in neighbouring areas. Experiments might include simple trials with fertilizers and perhaps some study of water requirements designed to do no more than work out a watering routine that will give the plants enough for their needs without putting on excess water that is, apart from wasting a scarce commodity, liable to increase soil salinity. 20. Protection from pests and diseases has proved to be a problem in the vegetable-growing areas of the Gulf and all have special sections in the agricultural departments to deal with these by spraying the crops. In Bahrain there is a Bahraini specialist with an English M.Sc., in Qatar an Egyptian graduate, at Digdaga a British entomolo gist, and Saudi Arabia has more than one plant protection specialist. I am not sure what resources are available in Oman. The Anti-Locust Research Centre in London is canvassing a suggestion that because Oman has some importance as a breeding ground for the desert locust - 8 -
