IOR/R/15/1/460

Consists of a report by Valentine Hugh Wilfred Dowson entitled 'Notes on a few day's journey to the West of Maskat'. The report is divided into sections including climate; geology; communications; flora and fauna. There then follows three sections on agriculture. Agriculture I reports on labour, cultivation and implements and irrigation. The section 'Agriculture II' reports on dates and date palms, their distribution and incidence; cultivation; date of ripening; cooked dates, disease, yield, price, packing and varieties. The section 'Agriculture III' examines other crops such as fruit trees and ground crops. Other sections cover population, government, and trade.

There is correspondence between Dowson and Major George Patrick Murphy, Political Agent Muscat discussing the report's significance. Also included is correspondence between Lionel Berkeley Haworth, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the India Office and Department of Overseas Trade about the potential of the date trade in Muscat.