Date Culture

IN HERD eee

BY

George Wharton James :
Paul B. Popenoe
Ralph D. Cornell

50 CENTS

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Date Culture

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

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GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
Editor OUT WEST, author of “The Wonders of the Colorado Desert,”
“In and Around the Grand Canyon,” “In and Out of
the Old Missions of California,” etc.

PAUL B. POPENOE
of the West India Gardens, Altadena.

RALPH D. CORNELL

of Pomona College.

OUT WEST
218 New High Street
Los Angeles, Cal.

*
#

ra
te.

El Kesba, an early ripening variety from Tunis, fruiting in the Coachella Valley, California.

“iN

[ate Growing
Desert.

By George Wharton James

Author of ‘‘In and Around the Grand
Canyon,”
Colorado Desert,” etc.

on the Colorado

“The Wonders of the

ARARAR

¢
£

other country in the world posses-
ses such marvelous adaptability
for the growing of such a variety
of plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers as
does California. There are several
reasons for this. Its soil is as rich and
as varied as the needs of plant. life,
its topography ranges from nearly 400
feet below sea level to over 14,000 feet
above, its climate runs the gamut from
Saharan Desert to Alpine Snows, and
it possesses inland valley, mountain
height, foot-hill slope, ocean shore, and
island surfaces upon which floral and
arboreal growths are as wonderfully
varied as anywhere in the world. The
result is that one need not be surprised
at anything he hears as to the possibili-
ties of California’s horticulture.

For centuries the Fan Palm, known
to scientists as the Neo-washingtonia
Filifera, has been growing profusely
in the canyons and foothills of the moun-
tains that surround the Colorado Desert
in Southern California. Great clusters
of fruits are annually ripened upon these
palms upon which the Indians have a

es IS to be doubted whether any

feast. These facts suggested to the
United States Government plant-ex-

perts and experimentalists that here,
under the high culture of American
methods of farming, the date palm of
the Persian Gulf region might be brought
to the highest possible state of perfec-
tion. Accordingly, about seven years
ago experimental date farms were es-
tablished at Mecca on the Colorado
Desert, and at Tempe in Arizona. In
spite of unusual and adverse conditions
the results have been eminently satis-
factory.

But even more pleasing than the results
obtained at the Government’s experi-
mental farms, are those achieved by an
experimentalist who was neither farmer
nor scientist. Six years ago last Oc-
tober (1911) James P. Read ‘took

up” 160 acres of desert land, four and
a half miles northwest of Mecca in the
artesian belt of the Coachella Valley. It
took a year to get his well bored and the
land cleared and ready for planting.
Hence, nothing upon his place is more
than five years old. He visited the
experimental date farm and became so
interested that he wrote to Dr. Walter
Swingle, the head of the experimental
department of plant life at Washington,
D. C., and asked if he would send him
a variety of date shoots, all of which
he would plant, carefully tend and ex-
periment with. Accordingly seeds of
26 different varieties of edible dates were
sent to him, all of which were planted with
unusual care. Nearly all of them came
up and thrived abundantly, but now,
after five years of experience, Mr. Read
is devoting the major part of his atten-
tion to seedlings of but three varieties:
namely:—the Deglet Noor, the Menak-
her and Tafilet.

At the outset it must be understood
that the date palm is diecious, some
trees being male and some female,
and it is essential that the growing
fruit be fertilized with the pollen from
the male trees. Experience has demon-
strated that this can better be done arti-
ficially than by nature, which permits
the digging out of the major part of
the unnecessary male trees which would
otherwise occupy the ground to no ad-
vantage. It is found that one male
tree is capable of fertilizing the fruit of
fully fifty female trees, which is about
the number planted to the acre. It
is impossible, however, to determine
whether the palms are male or female
until they are three or four years old,
and already Mr. Read has dug up over
a thousand male palms. In his experi-
ence the proportion of male to female
trees, grown from seeds, is about sixty
per cent.

The process of artificial pollination

“RIUIOJED ‘4989 OpRsO[OD ay) UO ( LAI/i/1-] DIMOJIULYSY. 4 OPN ) SWRA PANN Jo dnory y

»

Hon. James P. Read, the Pioneer Date Grower of the Coachella Valley (Colorado Desert) California

is very simple. The male trees pollin-
ate as early as February. The fruit of
the female trees is contained in lanceolate
shaped sheathes and as soon as these
sheathes split open they are ready to
be pollinated. A sprig of the pollen-
bearing male plant is placed inside the
female sheath and tied there, and this
close contact is found to producea surer
result than when the pollination is
left to the simple process of nature.

It is now well known that if one will
go to the trouble of planting seeds and
carefully watching the growth of the
plants that spring therefrom that new
and improved varieties may be dis-
covered and bred. This is one of the
secrets of Luther Burbank’s marvelous
achievements, and already in date cul-
ture. in Mr. Read’s orchard, it has given
to the world the finest and best date
palm known to the United States.
The palm is but five years old, yet its
fruit is already recognized as that of a
date of exceptionally high standard.
Its seeds are small, the meat of the fruit
of more delicious flavor, its color and
form better than that of any date known
in American commerce. When it was
but three and a half years old this palm

bore ninety pounds of fruit. The fol-
lowing year it bore nothing, having
doubtless exhausted itself the year be-
fore, but this year (1912) there is every
indication that it will yield from three
to four hundred pounds of fruit. The
palm now stands 18 feet high and is
about four feet in diameter at the base.

When the fact of the development
of this remarkable date from seed is
better known there can be but little
question that a great impetus will be
given to the planting of dates in the
desert regions of Southern California.
Experience has demonstrated that the
soil and climate are all that can be
desired and while last year the tempera-
ture on Mr. Read’s ranch at Thermal
fell to as low as sixteen degrees, Fahr.,
his date palms and fruit were uninjured.

This is what Mr. Read said personally
about this experience:

“The first week in January, 1912, we
had the most severe frost I have ever
experienced or have been able to learn
about on the desert. Every morning
for about an hour for a week the tem-
perature went down to sixteen. There
never was such asevere frost on the desert.
It killed all the young limbs of my fig

6

and orange trees, but on the dates, it
merely scorched the outer tips of the
leaves without doing the slightest in-
jury to either trunk or fruit.”

The Arabs have a proverb that the
date palm must have its feet in water
and its head in the sun, consequently
an essential condition to perfect growth
is an abundance of water. Where this
has been supplied in the Coachella and
Imperial Valleys excellent dates have
been the result, and there is every reason
to assume that before many years have
elapsed the Colorado Desert will be
producing all the dates that the commerce
of the United States calls for. It should
be borne in mind, however, that the
dates brought into the United States are
of the poorest quality. None of the
better classes ever reach this country,
as they are all purchased by the French,
English and Turks who control the ori-
ental date orchards, and the supply
being limited, they are never placed
upon the general market. Even under
these conditions the date growers re-
ceive twenty cents per pound on the
trees for all the superior quality of dates
they are able to grow.

Mr. Read’s experience in the plant-
ing of dates will undoubtedly be of ser-
vice to those who contemplate engaging
in this branch of horticulture. He
plants sixty-five palms to the acre,
though he has found that the sugges-
tion of the Government of fifty palms
to the acre is more successful to grow
an orchard from the seed. The rows
should be six feet apart and the palms
twelve feet apart in each row. Plant
the seeds out at the very start instead
of im a nursery. They thrive better
when apart and while the unnecessary
male trees have to be dug out as soon as
they prove themselves, it is better to
do this than plant all the seeds in a
nursery and lose a full year’s growth of
the bearing trees by transplanting. The
seeds should be planted three inches
deep. A good plan to secure eveness
of depth is to tie a string three inches
up on an old broomstick and use that
for planting.

In preparing the soil for the planting
of dates, it is well to fertilize it, and this
fertilization should be renewed every
year. The trees themselves need nitro-

gen and this is supplied by ordinary
stable manure. When they begin to
bear fruit, phosphates are required and
this can be purchased in the chemical
or bone mixtures. In Los Angeles,
phosphate manure is supplied at about
$20 per ton. In speaking further about
fertilizers Mr. Read said: ‘Very few
people are acquainted with the value of
the mesquite of the desert as a producer
of fertilizer for the soil. There are two
kinds of mesquite, one grows an ordinary
flat bean and the other the screw bean.
I have found the screw bean the most
valuable. Not only is it serviceable
for this purpose, but also as a windbrake.
I have planted quite a number of the
trees In rows within five or six feet of
each other and within three years they
have grown to be fifteen feet high, with
a dense foliage that reaches to the ground,
thereby affording adequate protection
from the desert winds.”

In addition to fertilization dates re-
quire plenty of irrigation.

They should be irrigated whenever
they need it. It doesn’t take any one
very long to learn when palms need
water. Cultivation should always fol-
low irrigation and it is a safe plan for
a beginner to irrigate not less than
every month.

While trees begin to bear, as shown
in the ease of the typical date to which
I have referred, as early as three and one
half years after planting, a palm is not
considered mature until it is ten years
old. If it is properly cared for it will
improve all the time both in the quality
and quantity of its fruit. After this
time the older it gets the better the fruit
should become, and the larger the quan-
tity. Intheir native habitat trees that
are one hundred years old are as strong
and sturdy as trees of a decade and seem
good for hundreds of years yet to come.

At from six to ten years of age a thrifty
tree should bear not less than one
hundred pounds of dates. Some trees
will bear double that before they are
ten years old, and when it is considered
that our poorest dates are far superior
to the best that can be bought in the
ordinary American markets, it can be
seen that the prices always ought to be
fairly good. Then, too, there is a vast

i

difference between dates “jammed” to-

A Bunch of Dates Grown on the Colorado Desert, California.

anyon

alm ¢

In P.

gether in the rude and dirty fashion in
which ordinary dates are generally pur-
chased, and dates that are allowed to
cure on the trees, from which they are
carefully removed and packed in small
cartons like chocolates. People nowa-
days would far rather pay a good price
for their foods neatly and heathily
packed with assured cleanliness.

While there are many kinds of dates
they may all be classified under one of
the following heads:—1. Dry; 2. Semi-
Dry; 38. Soft. The dates with which
we are familiar are the semi-dry, and
the very best of this class is the Deglet
Noor. A good Deglet Noor is not
only lucious and sweet, but has a nutty
flavor which is the standard by which
all dates are judged. But there is all
the difference in the world between these
dates when mashed together in the way
we generally purchase them and when
allowed to ripen on the trees.

9

The Hawaiians grow a dry date but
they are- practically unknown in the
United States. There are soft dates
that some people like very much better
than the semi-dry Deglet Noor. | Among
these are the Tafilet and Menakher. An
ordinary date of either of these kinds
will give two good mouthfuls, and they
are richer, more lucious and delicious
than any other fruit. The dates of the
desert generally ripen from September
to December.

In speaking to Mr. Read about his
experiences in date culture, he quaintly
remarked:—‘‘While I have learned a
good deal, I know there is still much
more to be learned. When I first began

I used to ask a great many questions
and paid careful attention to the answers,
put experience has taught me that it
is a foolish and dangerous business ask-
ing for information from those who don’t
know.

The World Famed Deglet Noor Date Palm, grown by James P. Read Coachella Valley, Colorado Desert, California.

LO

“To those who have filed upon desert
land and who within three of four years
expect to be able to secure water, and
who desire to plant dates, I am glad to
give the results of my own experiences
and would suggest that time can be
saved by adopting the following proced-

ure. Get all the good date seeds you
van. Put them in a gunny sack and

bury the sack for ten days either in a
ditch or any other place where there is an
abundance of water. The seeds will
thus be softening and when planted
will sprout quicker. Carefully prepare
the soil, fertilizing it with well-rotted
barn manure, then plant the seed, three
inches deep twelve inches apart in rows
two feet apart. Should they remain
there until they are three or four years
old their roots will appear like a large
onion. By this time it may be possible
to detect the sex of a few, or many, of
the plants and thus the males can be
eliminated before they are transplanted.
They practically lose a year’s growth
by being transplanted. Hence, if you
have the ground, plant your seeds out
where you expect your palms to grow.
Fertilize, irrigate and cultivate as has
been suggested elsewhere and there is
nothing to prevent your having abundant
success.”

While figures may be made to tell
almost any kind of a story, here are a
few figures which Mr. Read or any other
experienced date grower will verify.
Suppose one has fifty palms to the acre,
and that they are in moderate bearing,
say one hundred pounds to the tree.
At twenty cents a pound, that is twenty
dollars per tree, or $1,000 per acre.
Cut the price in half, and $500 per acre
is still a wonderful return, and the price
of ten cents per pound for rich, delicious
dates, cured on the tree, packed in neat
vartons and otherwise prepared for the
market, is by no means an exaggerated
figure.

A few facts in the life of this pioneer

date grower of California cannot. fail
to be interesting.

He was born in New Jersey, April
29, 1835. His parents were Irish who
emigrated to this country almost im-
mediately after their marriage. Up to
his fifteenth year the growing lad was
sent to school and there gained all the
school education he was ever to receive,

for when the Gold Rush of 1849 came,
he ran away from home, hurried to New
York, succeeded in getting aboard a
vessel going to the Isthmus of Panama
which he crossed, and eventually landed
in San Francisco. Here he spent two
or three weeks and then hurried to the
mines at Potts Bar of the Yuba River.
Then began a roving life which lasted
for several years, life itself being his
stern monitor and experience his teacher.
Indeed, as he himself says, he has had
far more schooling since he left school
than he had while he was there.

Tired at last of the roving life, he
learned the carpenter’s business in Butte
Co., and soon had a good business—

house-building, mill-building and _ the
like. Forty-three years ago he built

a quartz mill in Brown’s Valley, Yuba
County, and there he has occupied every
position from the lowest to the highest.
Prospecting for gold, however, has al-
ways been his chiefest lure, and every
summer he has gone out into the moun-
tains seeking for the precious metal.

Ever since his wife died, twenty years
ago, he has felt that he has had no home,
hence, when some friends who had a
high opinion of his ability asked him to
come down to the Colorado Desert to
prospect for oil, he yielded to their per-
suasions and came. He has a _ good
outfit and made a thorough search for
what his friends hoped to find. He
entered the desert from San Diego by
way of Carrizo Creek and struck the
Coachella Valley just about the time of
its first boom. In spite of its desert
appearance, he was attracted to the
country and seemed instinctively to
recognize its marvelous horticultural
possibilities. He settled down, planted
out his date orchard as before related and
a short time ago was Joined by his son
who has been a sailor all his life, holding
positions of trust on the steamers of the
Hawaiian Company, but who has given
up his sailor life in order to help his
father develop this new, fascinating
and poetic occupation on the desert.

In addition to grapes, apricots, figs
and small vegetables, Mr. Read has
sixteen acres planted in dates, and in
his date nursery enough palms now ready
to be transplanted for another forty
acres, which will all be in place before
the end of 1912.

11

Date Culture on the Colorado
Desert

By Ralph D. Cornell

IN JULY, 1912, Mr. Ralph D. Cor-

nell, formerly of Pomona College
was engaged by the Chuckawalla
and Palo Verde Irrigation Asso-
ciation to make a study of date,
citrus, fig and other fruit growing con-
ditions in the Indio, Coachella and Im-
perial Valleys and Yuma region. From
this report we quote the following on
date culture.

“About seven thousand date shoots
have been imported into the United States
since the beginning of the date industry.
Dr. Coit says that all of the requisite
conditions for the successful growing of
dates may be found in many places
thruout the Imperial, Coachella and
Colorado Valleys, and the country around
Palo Verde and Blythe, Riverside County.
The Imperial, Coachella and Colorado
Valleys are the regions in which date
culture has proven its worth, and where
are now to be found bearing orchards and
thousands of newly planted off-shoots.
Dates are so far subject to pests, only
as imported on the young plants and
subsequently scattered. This infesta-
tion is in the form of scale of two dis-
tinct varieties: the Marlatt and Parla-
toria. A spray has been found that will
kill these seales, thus eliminating all
future danger from outside infection
and making possible its eradication, as
now extant. Spraying and burning with
a gasoline torch have proven to be effec-
tive means of killing scale on old and
established palms.

“The date is not particular as to the
soil in which it grows, and will thrive in
considerable alkali. Light and heavy
soil alike seem to produce dates. While
the date is a desert palm and requires
a long period of intense heat for proper
development and ripening, the roots
require an abundance of water. Dr.
Coit says that one miners inch of con-
tinual flow is sufficient to maintain a
five acre orchard of bearing dates.

DASSSS

The off-shoots are set 25 ft. by 30
ft. apart, or about sixty trees to the
acre, and begin to bear at the ages of
from three to five years. Seedlings are
somewhat uncertain, but off-shoots al-
ways come true to the parent. A con-
servative estimate of the bearing capacity
of a ten year old tree would be 100 pounds.
Some will bear as high as 400 pounds to
the tree. A leading Los Angeles grocer
has placed the average retail price
for fresh, California dates at from 50
cts. to 75 cts. a pound. They bring
from 15 cts. to $1 a pound to the grower.
Fruit matures, here, from September
thru December, some varieties ripening
on the trees, others requiring artificial
heat. The Deglet Noor is very popular,
among growers, at present, as it will
ripen on the tree before the cold weather
comes, and is of unusual delicacy of
flavor.

“A palm reaches its maturity of bear-
ing capacity at ten years and will con-
tinue to produce for one hundred. One
palm sometimes bears as high as twenty
bunches in a season. Off-shoots are
produced between the age of three and
fifteen years, after which no more ap-
pear. During this period, one palm will
produce ten or twelve off-shoots, some-
times more. The importers’ price for
off-shoots is $8 apiece. Those grown
locally cannot be had for that.

“Palm Springs can boast of a few young
date palms that have come into bearing,
but has nothing on a commercial scale,
nor any palms of much age.

“At Indio, is located one of the Govern-
ment experimental stations, where date
culture is being forwarded. On an ad-
jacent ranch, are four Deglet Noor trees
that produced 300 pounds last year that
sold for $1 on the average. Twelve
imported trees, on the same ranch will
produce at the age of seven years, about
750 pounds of fruit, as they are now laden
with 75 bunches of dates. An _ offer

12

of $25 apiece for off-shoots from these
Deglet Noor trees was refused, as the
owner wished to set more plants, and
considered them worth that much him-
self. _

“At Mecca is the largest Government
date garden in the valley. These trees
are growing on soil containing three-
tenths of one per cent alkali, and have
been fertilized regularly each year with
one yard of manure to the tree; and have
received frequent and abundant irri-
gation, with prompt cultivation after
each watering. The trees have been
sprayed for scale. All of the old palms
are heavily laden with fruit, and in splen-
did condition.

“Situated a few miles south west of
Mecca, is an orchard contaiming 5000
date palms. Of these, between 300
and 400 are of bearing age, running from
three to five years. The crop on them
is estimated at 2000 pounds and should
average 75 cts. a pound. From one
Deglet Noor tree the owner took 90
pounds of fruit when it was three years

old. When four years old no fruit was
produced. This season, at the age of

five, the crop is estimated at 250 pounds,
of which 150 pounds are engaged at
$1.50 per pound. In addition the palm
has already produced three off-shoots.
This grower expects to net from $300 to
$600 an acre from his dates when they
have become ten years of age.

“These trees are growing in soil that
contains from one to six-tenths per cent
of alkali and some salt. They are
fertilized with manure once a_ year,
and for trees producing fruit potash,
phosphates and cotton seed are applied.
Several other ranches in this vicinity

have trees producing excellent fruit.

“The Imperial Valley is sprinkled
with date plantings, and has several
experimental farms where dates are
grown. The trees thrive and fruit here
very readily and are well adapted to
such climatic conditions.

“One of the Arizona experimental
farms is situated at Yuma where seven
year old dates may be seen in full bear-
ing. These trees have never been fer-
tilized. Cultivated crops have been
grown between the rows, thru which
the dates have received their only till-
age. In the spring of 1912 the palms
were pruned severly and burned with a
gasoline torch to kill the seale. After
this harsh treatment one seven year old
palm that already contained eight off-
shoots produced ten bunches of fruit.
Some palms did not bear at all.

“Fruiting palms of thrift are also to
be found on the mesa near Yuma.
These have had little care but the water
necessary to keep them growing. One
nine year palm produced, in 1911, 210
pounds of fruit that sold for 10 cts.
i. (0; Ba Yumiar

“The date industry seems to be a
coming thing for these valleys, while
the results so far obtained are largely
problematical, there seems to be no rea-
son why the future shall not witness
the growing of dates as a highly commer-

cial success. The seedlings are uncer-
tain as to sex, quality of fruit and age

of bearing, but by proper selection and
propagation from off shoots standard
varieties can soon be produced in abun-

dance. Scale is under control and the
climatic conditions are proven. Time

will do the rest.

Date Growing in California and

Arizona
By Paul B. Popenoe, West India Gardens, Altadena.

O WELL ADAPTED is the date
palm to culture in certain parts
of the southwest that ever since
attention was widely called to
decade ago, it has been looked
as the most promising industry

The hopes of that period have
been changed to certainties, by

i}
upon
there.
now

Grown in

the work of many experimenters, so

there remains no doubt as to the pos-

sibilities of this culture. For the
Coachella, Imperial, Chuckawalla and
Palo Verde valleys and certain low-

lying parts of Arizona there is no un-
certainty about the production of dates:

it is admitted to be one of the most
desirable industries in which ranchers
can engage. The areas named are not
large in total extent, but they probably
exhaust the list of good date regions
in the United States, if a little strip of
Texas in the neighborhood of Laredo,
where the government has recently

Arizona.

started be
added.

Eventually, it will no doubt be pos-

encouraging experiments,

sible to grow certain varieties of dates
in other parts of California. Seacoast

varieties can probably be found which

Imported Offshoot after six years at Indio.

will succeed in such a climate as San
Diego, while there are plenty of early-
maturing sorts that will doubtless fruit
with fair regularity in parts of the San
Joaquin valley, the Sacramento valley,
Death valley and similar locations, warm
in summer but cold in winter. These
last-named areas will not be likely to
affect the market in dates; they will
grow fresh fruit for home consumption,
but can hardly produce enough high-
grade dates to create much of a commerce
since the best varieties of dates usually
ripen rather late because they require
a great amount of total heat to mature

properly. This, at least, is the case
with North African varieties; {t 1s pos-
sible that the early-ripening Persian
Gulf dates may change the situation
entirely, but as they have not yet been
tried in such regions as I have men-

tioned, one can only speak from con-
jecture.
Attention was first called to date

culture as a possibility for the south-
west by the fruiting of a number of
seattered seedlings, notably those
planted by J. R. Wolfskill near Winters,
Yolo county, about 1858; a few in the
neighborhood of Yuma, and still others
in “the Salt River valley in Arizona.
Some of the seedlings planted in this
valley bore fruit of excellent quality;
accordingly it was Arizona rather than
California that took the lead in scientif-
ic propagation of the date.

In 1889 the Department of Agricul-
ture imported fifty-nine offshoots in
tubs from Egypt, nine from Algeria
and six from Maskat, which were ple inted
in the Arizona experiment garden at
Phoenix. Those that survived flour-
ished, but more were lost by various
transplantings, and I believe there are
now only two of this original importa-
tion in existence—one in Arizona and
another, an Egyptian variety, near Indio.

In 1889 the co-operative date garden
was established at Tempe, Ariz., by
the State University and the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and about 450
North African offshoots secured for it,
a few being sent to other points in the
Southwest. Since then the Department
of Agriculture has imported more than
1,000 offshoots from all parts of the
world, until the Tempe garden has the

15

largest collection of varieties to be
found anywhere—something above 230.
Unfortunately, the soil of this station
is utterly unsuited to careful investi-
gations of the varieties, or even the
production of good dates, being heavily
alkaline and saturated with “drainage
from irrigation ditches. The Depart-
ment of Agriculture has established two
stations in the Coachella Valley, one
at Mecca on soil which is too sandy to
produce the best results, and more
recently a station near Indio, which
is admirably located and will in time
certainly become the principal station.
At present it has not a large collection
of varieties, but new ones are being
added by bringing offshoots from the
other stations as rapidly as possible.
The success of these government im-
portations encouraged private growers,
and several good plantations were start-
ed, notably those of the California
Date Company at Heber, Imperial
county, and Bernard G. Johnson at
Mecca, Riverside county, California.
The latter has since been sold to the
American Date Company. Both of
these consisted principally of Deglet
Noor palms from Algeria and are today
the two oldest and finest private plant-

ings in the country. Other importa-
tions followed, so that between 6,000
and 7,000 offshoots have been brought
to the United States from Algeria,
mostly of the Deglet Noor variety.
Many of these have already yielded

offshoots for planting, and as the govern-
ment has been liberal in giving away or
selling shoots from its palms, there
are nearly 10,000 palm trees of foreign
origin in the United States at the present
time, the larger number being in the
Coachella Valley.

Other growers, both in California and
Arizona, ‘have planted seedlings in large
quantities, and some of these are al-
ready in bearing. The total acreage of
dates in the Southwest at present must
be several hundred, of which at least
sixty acres are now in bearing, many
of them for the first time this year.

Evidently, this is an industry that
has passed far beyond the experimental
stage. The growers of Arizona, indeed,
have been held back by lack of varieties
suited to their peculiar climate, but this

16

situation is now being remedied. The
ranchers of Imperial Valley have been
making so much money out of other
crops that they have not given much
time to dates; so the Coachella Valley
is the principal exponent of the industry
at the present time; and no one who
has inspected what has been done there
can entertain any doubt as to the future
of date growing in the United States.

Requirements of the Palm.

The prime requisite for successful
date culture is intense summer heat.
Dr. W. T. Swingle of the Bureau of

palm, and one miner’s inch per acre
is a desirable supply for successful date
growing, unless one is in a very heavy
soil that will absorb and hold moisture
a long time. Warm water is an advan-
tage; it is by the flow from hot springs
that the dates of Hasa, most famous
in the world, are produced. Artesian
water in most parts of the Southwest
is sufficiently warm to be satisfactory.

The question of soils is a little more
complex. Normally the date succeeds
best in a sandy loam; yet it is cultivated
with good results in many places where
the loam is in a very small amount. On

Imported Persian Gulf palms at the U. S. Agricultural Experiment Station, Mecca.

Plant Industry, has carefully figured
out the necessary amount (in Bull. No.
53) but in practice it may be said that
any of the localities mentioned at the
beginning of this article: Coachella,
Imperial, Palo Verde, Chuckawalla Val-
leys and the lower parts of Arizona
meet the requirements for heat. The
great drawback in many localities is
that, while the midsummer heat may be
intense, the autumn coolness begins too
early; but this drawback is partly avoid-
ed by artificial ripening of the dates.
The other essential, co-ordinate with
heat, is water. There are few cultures
that require as much irrigation as the

the other hand, some of the best Deglet
Noors in Algeria are grown in a stiff clay,
comparable to that of Imperial Valley;
while the excellent dates of the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers flourish in a silt
that is pure adobe, although the natives
consider a slight admixture of sand
preferable.

In general, the date can be grown in
any good soil that is not too heavy,
provided the right varieties be selected
for the soil. A pure sand is to be
avoided, however. The soil of the Mecca
experiment station is one of the worst
pieces of Coachella Valley, and it is
only beginning to give fairly good

17

Imported Palm fruiting in California, 1912.

results because five carloads of manure
have been put in it during the last
few years. Of course, the date will
yield results proportionate to the good
soil and good care it gets, Just as other
fruits will.

The palm is not at all discouraged by
the presence of a slight amount of alka-
linity in the soil. Some years ago it
was held to succeed better in a salty
ground than in a clean one, but many
growers are beginning to doubt this and
to hold that, while it is remarkably
tolerant of alkali, it will give the best
results in the best surroundings. How-
ever that may be, it is certain that a
small amount of salt in the ground is no
hindrance to successful culture, and
that dates can even be grown after a
fashion in soil that is too alkaline to
produce anything else. The station at
Tempe, for instance, is so salty that
weeds will not grow in the garden, and
there is practically nothing, aside from
the dates, except a few unhappy pome-
granates. The salt on the surface is
the thickest, and of course it does the
least harm here, but the fact that the
palms will grow at all in such surround-
ings speaks well for their resistance.

Anyone who contemplates establish-
ing dates in an alkaline soil should in-
vestigate it thoroughly to a depth of
six or eight feet. If there is a good

layer of soil which does not contain
more than one per cent of salt, the date
roots will spread out in this layer, and
the palm will thrive even though there
should be a surface layer, or several
other layers, that are much more alka-
line. If there is not a body of soil with
less than one per cent of alkali, it is
useless to plant dates and hope for
good results. Those who intend to
make commercial plantings can not be
too strongly advised to select land that
is as rich and clean as possible, for their
results will be proportionately better.
One often hears a rancher say, ‘I’ve
got a piece of ground out there that
isn’t fit for anything else; I guess Vl
turn it into dates.’ Such practice is
not likely to benefit either the landowner
or the State very much.

If the soil is alkaline and the water
supply pure, the latter will help over-
come the former. On the other hand, if
the ground is clean, alkali in the water
will not do any harm. But salty soil
and bitter water is a combination that
should be avoided.

The palm will stand a good deal of
cold weather in winter, if it is not too
prolonged. Temperature 17 F. in the
Coachella Valley last winter injured the
appearance of some of the palms, but
apparently had no effect on the follow-
ing crop.

18

Offshoots or Seedlings.

Having picked out a piece of soil
suitable for his purposes, the intending
grower of dates is at once confronted
with the question whether he shall
plant offshoots or seeds. The former
method is in use in all the important
date-growing countries of the world;
the latter has been advocated by govern-
ment officials, particularly for growers
without capital, and has enlisted some

violently enthusiastic advocates, so
that the date-growing world is now
practically divided into two hostile
camps.

A deliberate consideration of the ex-
perience of other countries, and of pre-
vious attempts in this one, as well as of
the biological principles involved, should
put each method in its proper place and
remove the grounds for confusion. The
seedling method may be summed up
as follows:

Seedlings are planted thickly in nur-
sery rows, and will often bloom in the
third year, when approximately one-
half will be males, and as they do not
bear fruit can be removed and destroyed.
Within two years more the remaining
females will have borne a little fruit,
which can be tested, and those that
seem desirable can be retained, while
the others, perhaps three-fourths of the
whole, can be destroyed. The remain-
ing females will probably be twenty
per cent of the total number of seeds
planted; these palms can be transplanted
to orehard form. Obviously some will
be much better than others; as the
plantation grows and all the palms
produce offshoots, the inferior ones can
be removed and replaced by offshoots
from the superior ones. These offshoots
will of course require five years more
to come into bearing; so that it will be
ten to fifteen years before the grower
has a full acreage of bearing palms;
but this will have cost him nothing
except his time, other expenses of cul-
tivation, and interest on investment.

The method has certain advantages
for men—homesteaders, for instance—
whose land is abundant and time very
cheap. Most growers, however, if they
ealeulate the value of their time, and
the use of their land for ten or twelve
years, will find that they would actually

have saved money by planting imported
offshoots in the first place. But worst
of all, even when the orchard has been
weeded out until only good palms are
left, these will all differ, variation among
seedlings being just as great in palms
as in any other fruit.

On this last point there seems to
exist considerable misapprehension. The
fact that seedlings have sometimes
yielded fruit, fully as good as and in-
distinguishable from the parent has been
heralded so much that those not in
touch with the situation come to think
this is the rule, rather than the ex-
ception. If one secures all the data
in regard to any given planting, he will
find the situation far otherwise.

Dr. Swingle, for instance, says in the
bulletin above mentioned (p. 20),: “The
seedlings of a single sort of date may
present the most remarkable variations,
and usually the parent type is not
exactly reproduced by any of the off-
spring. This is clearly shown by the
experiments of Col. Sam Taylor of
Winters, Calif., who tried to propagate
from seed the valuable early ripening
Wolfskill date growing on his place.
This was done because this palm had
ceased to produce offshoots before its
value was recognized. Many of these
seedling dates have fruited, but none
resembles in the slightest degree the
parent variety; most of them are much
later and consequently fail to mature
at Winters, where the summer heat is
insufficient to ripen any but the earliest
sorts.”

The Example of Spain.

Finally, any one who wishes to see
how the seedling theory works in prac-
tice, should visit the date groves of
Eastern Spain, which have been propa-
gated by seedlings. It is true that the
climate there is not favorable to the
production of high grade fruit; yet the
influence of seedling propagation can be
seen at a glance; every tree bearing a
different variety, so that it is impossible
to grade the dates, and they are sold
very much as cull oranges are in Cali-
fornia. Any one who tries to get into
commercial date growing by planting
seedlings will secure similar results;
even if his seedlings should be of good

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20

quality, they will be so diversified that
he can not supply a high-priced trade,
which demands well graded dates, each
box uniform. Such dates, at present,
can only be produced by planting off-
shoots, which will exactly reproduce
the parent variety and allow one to
know what he is getting.

On the other hand, it is to be desired
that every grower should plant a few
seedlings where they will not be in his
way—as a wind-break, for instance—
and let them grow. In this way the
State will in time secure some varieties
of local origin that may be as fine as
anything known; and although propa-
gation from one specimen will be very
slow, yet it was in this way that all the
famous foreign varieties were originally
propagated. We are now taking ad-
vantage of the centuries of work of the
Arabs; those who plant seedlings for
commercial use are going several hun-
dred years behind the times.

The Bureau of Plant Industry has set
out nearly 400,000 seedlings in Arizona,
with the desire to produce new varieties.
Work has also been started to breed
seedling dates, by securing males of
known pedigree, Deglet Noor, for in-
stance, and pollenizing Deglet Noor
females with them. It will take several
generations to get a male that is fairly
pure, but when that has been done,
seedlings can be produced with a much
better chance of success.

Basing their decisions on the con-
siderations above stated, nearly all grow-
ers with capital who have embarked in
the date industry, have done so with
offshoots, and the number is increasing
ach year. At present any large num-
ber of offshoots can only be secured by
importation from abroad, since the sup-
ply produced in the United States is
only a small fraction of the demand.
Excellent results have been had with
importation, when proper care was used,
so that it is not a risky proceeding.
The California Date Company, of Heber,
succeeded in getting ninety-eight per
cent of its imported offshoots to grow,
whereas the best growers in Algeria,
transporting their offshoots only a few

miles, are satisfied with seventy-five
per cent.
Needless to say, the female palm

produces only female offshoots, and the
male palm males. Offshoots must be
two or three years old when taken from
the tree, and should be from fifteen
to forty-five pounds in weight. After
being left in the shade for a day or two
to dry, they are trimmed up, only a
a foot or two of the leaf stems being
left, and the roots wrapped in moist
moss or palm fibre. It is desirable to
seal the cut ends of the stems with
asphaltum, and if a long journey is
contemplated, to coat the stump, where
it was severed from the tree, with the
same material. In transit, there is
more danger in bringing the offshoots
too wet than too dry—in fact, fair
results have been had under favorable
conditions with shipments in which no
moisture is used. Bernard G. Johnson
of Mecca has tried putting the palms
in an iced car, at least for the latter
part of the journey, and considers that
this gives good results.

At present the County Horticultural
Inspectors of California require that
offshoots be kept in nursery rows for
the first year, in order that scale may
be eradicated. They should be planted
fo the depth of their greatest diameter,
and it is well to shade them with palm
leaves or a loose burlap wrapper, which
will not only protect them from sun
during the first summer but from frost
during the following winter. They
should not be planted until the ground
is warm; May and June are the best
months.

Bad luck has been had with offshoots
brought from the Tempe garden and
planted in Coachella Valley, where they
show a disposition to sour and die.
Taken from a sodden field, the dry soil
and air from Coachella Valley is too
much for them, and fermentation quickly
sets in. It is worth while to notice
this as a warning, that offshoots should
not be transplanted into too dissimilar
conditions. Such a situation rarely
arises in practice, however.

Offshoots Need Care in Rooting.
When the offshoots are in the ground,
begins the most critical period of their
life. Unless they are kept at the proper
degree of moisture during their first
summer, the loss will be heavy. It

must be remembered that the process
of rooting an offshoot is similar to that
of rooting a slip or cutting in the
open ground. Tiny rootlets are thrown
out, and these must be nourished into
vigor; a few days of drought in the hot
desert sun may kill these soft roots,
and the offshoot will then give up the
struggle for existence. Some heavy los-
ses have been recorded in the history
of the industry in California, in most
‘ases due to mere carelessness and neg-
ligence; but if unremitting care is used,
there is no reason to apprehend any
trouble in saving a very large percentage
of the palms.

No hard and fast rule can be laid
down for watering the offshoots, as it
depends on the nature of the ground.
Arabs in some parts of the Sahara water
them every day for the first forty days;
in heavier soils, every day for the first
week, then every other day for another
week, and so on, tapering off. Some-
times a good plan is to water on two
successive days and omit the third day,
keeping this up for several months if
the soil is sandy, but not putting too
much water on at any one time. The
soil must be kept moist, but it must also
be allowed to dry out a little from time
to time, in order to admit air, other-
wise the offshoots will drown.

Half of the palms should show signs
of growth before the first winter, and
the rest will come along in the following
spring and fall, it being not unusual for
an offshoot to remain dormant for a
year and a half after it is planted.
When they are well rooted they may
be transplanted to orchard form, pref-
erably thirty-three feet apart each way
or forty to the acre. From then on,
they require little more than irrigation
and cultivation with fertilizer once a
year, and there is little danger of irri-
gating too much, if the soil is well
drained. It is a waste of time to plant
palms in a soil that is not well drained.

During most of the year they should
be watered at least once a week, this
bemg suspended while they are blos-
soming, and at the time the fruit is
ripening. During the summer, when the
fruit is developing, twice a week would
be good, or in light soil even oftener.
In a sandy soil, Arabs some imes give

21

water every day; of course, good judg-
ment should be used.

Pollinating the Female Palm.

The only operation which causes any
trouble is pollination of the female
blossom, which must be done by hand.
A sprig of male blossom is shaken over
each cluster of flowers, and then tied
in place there, so that Nature can com-
plete the distribution of pollen. The
females in America have shown a ten-
dency to blossom early, often opening
up in February, and it is not always
easy to get male blossoms so early.
The large number of seedlings recently
planted will perhaps furnish more early-
blooming males; in the meantime, those
who purchase offshoots should see that
they get three or four males to each 100,
which are known to bloom at a suitable
time. The California Date Company
of Heber lost almost the whole of its
first crop through inability to get pollen.

In Arabic countries, a little pollen
is kept over from year to year, for use
on female palms which are precocious
in blossoming. This is a desirable prac-
tice, as the pollen apparently loses none
of its power; in fact, a pollenization was
made this year at Mecca with pollen
seven years old, and gave good results.
Experiments have also been made in
pollinating date palms with the pollen
of Pheonix canariensis, the commom
Canary Island date palm which is found
in gardens all over California, and
also with male blossoms of the desert
fan palm, Washingtonia filifera. In
both cases good results have been se-
cured, and growers who find themselves
unable to get pollen might have recourse
to one of these expedients; but the
danger of failing to get it becomes
slighter each year.

After pollination, water should be
witheld for a few weeks, in order to get
the fruit well set; then the palm takes
sare of itself for some months. The
first fruit will ripen about the beginning
of August (thisfrom early Persian Gulf
varieties ) and the harvest will continue,
as one variety after another comes into
action, until well into October, when
the Deglet Noor finally gets its berries
filled with sugar.

A Profitable Side Line.

In addition to the fruit, a very profit-
able feature of the industry here will
be the offshoots, which the palm _ pro-
duces until it reaches the age of fifteen
years or more. It cannot, of course,
bear a heavy crop and earry a full load
of offshoots at the same time, and as the
offshoots are so valuable, growers now
limit the tree to only a few bunches of
fruit each year, letting it devote most
of its energy to reproduction by the
offshoots.

In this way one might take off two
offshoots each year, from the fifth to
the fifteenth or longer, and at the same

It will probably take a number of years
to work out these problems, if indeed
they are capable of solution.

Yield.

The yield of a palm in full bearing
varies widely with the variety, but in
no case should it be allowed to pro-
duce more than ten or twelve clusters,
and for a younger palm, four to eight
is enough. If it is allowed to retain
the full number of clusters it sends out,
often fifteen or twenty, it will probably
bear nothing the following year. Yields
as high as 500 or 600 pounds for a single
palm have been recorded, and it is not
unusual to find a tree bearing half that

Imported offshoots being rooted in nursery rows.

time get a profitable crop of fruit. By
the time the palm has ceased to produce
offshoots, it would be in the full vigor
of maturity, and could devote its at-
tention to producing nothing but fruit.
Those more interested in selling the
fruit should remove the offshoots as
fast as they appear, in order not to take
the palm’s vitality unnecessarily. As
long as offshoots sell at $8.00 apiece,
few will care to extirpate them in
this way.

Experiments are now under way at
the Indio station with a view to making
the palm produce offshoots more abund-
antly, and of finding methods to propa-
gate the offshoots when they are very
small—only a few pounds in weight.

much in California or Arizona; but in
such cases it will bear less the next year,
and if the grower gets 100 pounds to
the tree, each year, he should be well
satisfied; even this will only be with
good varieties.

Artificial Ripening.

The softness of the date naturally
makes it difficult to handle, and in some
parts of Arizona, where late summer
rains are frequent, these have proved
a great obstacle to date culture because
they fell on the fruit when it was ripen-
ing, and caused it to sour. A similar
objection has always been found at the
Tempe orchard, where the constantly
wet ground caused the fruit to ferment
easily; and it is for this reason that

growers withold irrigation after the
dates begin to soften.

On the other hand, the dryness of
the Coachella Valley atmosphere is such
that the late Deglet Noor frequently
begins to “mummify”’ just at the time
it should be fillmg with syrup, and
becomes a hard, dry, worthless berry.
This might be eliminated by giving
abundant irrigation at that period, so
the fruit would fill with water.

However, these problems are all much
more insignificant since the perfection
of methods of artificial ripening, which
are America’s greatest contribution to
the date industry so far; it is not too
much to say that artificial maturation
alone makes profitable date culture
possible in the United States. It re-
moves the element of uncertainty, the
risk which growers of fruits must face,
and puts the industry in the class of
dependable things.

Artificial ripening has been practised
In many other countries in different
forms. The Spaniards dip their dates
in vinegar, which acts on them chem-
ically; the Mexicans of Lower California
lay them out in the sun during the day
and roll them in blankets at night to
steam. A somewhat similar process is
applied to the famous Medjool date of
Tafilalet, Morocco, according to Dr.
Swingle. The first experiments on the
subject in this country, were made by
the University of Arizona, which tried
a wide range of chemicals all of which
converted more or less of the tannin,
and Dr. Vinson finally settled on nitrous
ether as the best agent; dates exposed
to the fumes of this for a short time
became quite edible. R. H. Forbes,
superintendent of the station, summed
up the advantages as follows;

1. The fruit can be harvested cheap-
ly, by the bunch, before the berries
begin to drop or are attacked by insects,
moulds or bacteria.

2. Danger of loss by untimely rains
is minimized.

3. The ravages of worms in the rip-
ened crop are avoided.

4. Greater cleanliness of the product
is possible than with naturally ripened
dates.

5. Late varieties, among them the
Deglet Noor, which do not ripen satis-

23

factorily here,
brought through.

6. Harly varieties may probably be
grown and ripened at higher altitudes
than formerly.

7. Dates while yet hard may be
shipped without injury to a distance,
then ripened artificially, and marketed
in a fresh and prime condition.

may be successfully

Development of the Method.

Previous to his chemical experiments,
Dr. Vinson had tried moist heat, which
he later abandoned. Mr. Freeman
of the same staff took up this feature,
and carried the experiments along until
he had secured good results, the only
drawback being that much of the cane
sugar was turned into invert sugar by
the process.

At this point Mr. Chumard, manager
of the California Date Company at
Heber, began to experiment, and made
certain changes in the technique which
allowed him to market one year’s crop
in good condition. Where he left off,
the Bureau of Plant Industry began
work, and Professors 8. C. Mason and
Bruce Drummond at the Indio station
have perfected the method to a point
where it seems to be entirely satisfactory.
They have succeeded in avoiding the
inversion of most of the cane sugar, and
also cut down the length of time neces-
sary for exposure in the oven.

In their work they have used a large
poultry incubator, since no great degree
of heat is required. The fruit is picked
when it is just beginning to color, but is
still hard, and I understand that it is
soaked in water for from twenty-four
to forty-eight hours; then put in the in-
cubator on a screen with a pan of water
underneath, and kept there from eighteen
to twenty-four hours at a temperature
ranging around 110 F. As they have
not yet published the results of their
investigations officially, the exact re-
sults are still witheld from the public.

Suecess depends on absolute control
of the moisture and heat, so the process
is one that will always call for some
judgment, just as baking bread does.
It is not complicated, however, nor is
it expensive, and it effects such a mar-
velous change that I believe that all
fruit marketed in the future will be pro-

24

cessed in this way. It also saves a
week or ten days in putting the fruit
on the market, since it would require
that much longer to mature on the tree.
The exact technique for each variety
of dates will have to be worked out, and
each grower who ripens his own will
have to experiment for himself until he
learns the operation. Probably galvan-
ized iron or zine ovens will be constructed,
with moisture pans at the bottom, and
heat supplied by a lamp just as it is
for the incubation of eggs.

The University of Arizona experiment
station has published the results of its
work on the crop last year, which was
a particularly favorable one, and reports:
“The results of the season’s work have
shown that evenness of maturity Is one
of the most important factors im suc-
cessful date culture in most parts of
Southern Arizona. Varieties that mature
evenly can be artificially ripened without
loss into high quality fruit in the most
adverse seasons; while varieties that
mature less evenly such as the Rhars,
will yield at any given time only about
seventy-five or eighty per cent of market-
able fruit, of which a large part is rela-
tively worthless, due to its lack of sugar
and flavor.” Evidently, the question
of varieties is all-important, even with
artificial ripening; without this, date
culture would be almost hopeless as a
commercial prospect in the adverse
conditions of the Salt River Valley.
But by selecting the proper varieties,
the report declares that even under the
most adverse conditions, “from ninety-
five to 100 per cent ripened into first
quality fruit of their class” by artificial
means.

It was Deglet Noor fruit, grown by
Fred N. Johnson of Indio and ripened
artificially at the government experi-
ment ‘station, which sold for $1.00 a
pound in Los Angeles last fall. Further-
more, it has been found possible to take
Deglet Noor berries which had ‘‘mum-
mified” on the tree, and by putting them
through the incubator, to restore’ them
to perfect condition. And the process
will be even more valuable for the
softer varieties of dates than it is for
Deglet Noor, since they are more liable
to injury if left to ripen on the tree.
The amount of fruit wasted by the

Arabs in handling is appalling, and in
Arizona, in bad seasons, the crop has
been almost a total loss. These calami-
ties will be averted by artificial ripen-
ing, and the certain profits of the in-
dustry increased to that extent.

There is no doubt that the best
quality of dates should be put up in
fancy one or two-pound boxes for the
American retail trade, just as confec-
tionery is put up. In this way alone
‘an faney prices be realized. But the
great bulk of the trade will still remain
in the second grade berries, selling in
bulk at fifteen to twenty-five cents a
pound, and so far superior to imported
dates in handling and cleanliness that
they will hardly be competitors.

Second Obstacle Removed

The perfection of a method of artifi-
cial ripening removed one of the two
great obstacles to the success of date
culture in the United States; the other
was swept aside this spring, in the dis-
covery of means to exterminate the
seale insects which, introduced from
North Africa on offshoots, had threat-
ened the life of the industry in this
country. By use of the mealy-bug
spray based on various phenols, princi-
pally eresylie acid, the problem has been
solved and no longer need worry the
erower or intending grower.

The Parlatoria scale (Parlatoria blan-
chardi) was introduced to the United
States on the first importation of off-
shoots, made in 1889. It is a gray or
brownish insect living on the leaves of
the palm, and apparently confined to

that plant alone; it remains nearly
dormant during the winter, but is
active throughout the summer. It

proved very difficult to reach with in-
secticides, but finally the method of
burning over the palms with a gasoline
torch was originated, and many of the
older orchards in the Southwest were
so treated last year. This set them
back for a year, but did not injure them
permanently, as the palm is extraord-
inarily resistant to fire.

The Marlatt seale (Phoenicococcus
marlatti) was possibly introduced at
the same time, or at any rate on the
following importation of offshoots from
Africa. It lives usually at the base

El Kesba, imported from Tunis, fruiting at the government experiment station, Mecca, California
5

September 5, 1912

Thoory, a valuable dry or bread date from Northern Africa, fruiting at the government experiment station,
Mecca, California.

26

of the leaves, inside the palm where it
is almost inaccessible, but comes out
at intervals during the winter to moult.
The female secretes a white, waxy
substance, but not a true scale like
Parlatoria; its life eyele is about forty
days. When a palm is pulled apart,
masses of Phoenicococcus may be seen
at the base of each leaf, sometimes so
thick as to look like a piece of beefsteak.
This seale caused particular damage
by clustering around the young spadix
before it had emerged from its sheath,
and sucking the sap out of it, so the
cluster appeared withered and the dates

which it set were shriveled and unfit
for use.
No natural enemy of the Marlatt

scaie is yet known, although ladybirds
and other insects prey upon the more
exposed Parlatoria. Experiments made
in the Coachella Valley this spring
shewed that both scales yielded to the
phenol dip, and all offshoots are now
immersed in this for two fifteen-minute
periods, before planting. No ill results
are visible, and the treatment practically
exterminates the scale. In some
where the Phoenicocossus was in dense
masses, a few of the under layer survive,
but these can easily be reached by a
spray the following spring. — It is, then,
proper to say that we are now sure of
being able to keep these two dangerous
seales in absolute control, and when
further study of their life history teaches
us more effectually methods of com-
batting them, there is every reason to
suppose that they can be absolutely
exterminated.

Types and Varieties of Dates.

The subject of varieties is just as im-
portant with the date as with any other
fruit and it is fortunate that the south-
western states now contain the largest
collection of varieties to be found any-
where in the world, so that we are
gradually getting full data as to what
should be planted here. As was to be
expected, some varieties have not suc-
ceeded so well here as in their native
home; some have succeeded better;
but there are a dozen or more which
can be confidently recommended for
planting, and on which the planter runs
no risk of making a mistake.

Dates are ordinarily divided

cases

into

three types: soft, semi-dry and dry.
The finest varieties fall under the first
class, the second contains a number of
good ones for every day use, while the
third type is unknown to Americans,
although it is the one preferred by most
Arabs for a steady diet, since it is not
so cloying or heating as the softer kinds.
In North Africa the mountain and oasis
dwellers usually eat dry dates, while
the nomadie caravan Arabs prefer a
very soft date (usually the Rhars)
packed tightly into skins in a sort of
paste. The dry date is usually light in
color and the flesh sometimes so hard
that it is eaten with: difficulty; it has a
pleasant nutty flavor, reminding one
more of a cereal than a date, and the
fruit has the great advantage that it
can be kept indefinitely under any kind
of conditions without deteriorating in
any way. It can be handled as readily
as peanuts for shipping or packing.
Few have yet been planted on a commer-
cial scale inthe United States, but it is to
be desired that some one start a planta-
tion of these in order to test the market.
There seems little reason to doubt that
a good trade would quickly be developed,
especially among the rapidly growing
class of people who use fruit and nuts
largely as a diet.

Among the varieties that have been
introduced to California or Arizona and
fruited here, the following are best
known:

Deglet Noor must be put first, because
it is the most widely cultivated if for
no other reason. It is the standard of
excellence in North Africa, where it is
the only date served on the tables of
the rich, as a general rule; and while it
is perhaps not the finest date grown
there, yet it is by all odds the best that
is widely obtainable. Thomas H. Kear-
ney describes the variety as follows:
“A soft date, one and one-third to a
little over two inches long and about
one-half as wide, ovate oblong in shape,
generally widest at or near the middle
and blunt-pointed at the apex, often
narrowed also at the base, maroon
colored when ripe, the flesh two to three
lines thick, translucent, the seed a
little more than one-half as long as the
fruit, conspicuously pointed and dark
chestnut brown color. The stalks and

branches of the fruit clusters are bright
yellow (not orange ), the stalks long and
slender, sharply curved near the base, so
that the bunches hang down far below
the crown of foliage. The trunk is
comparatively slender. The foliage is
light and delicate looking, and the
narrow leaves and leaflets are rather
yellowish green. The spines are slender
and weak.”’

This variety has many advantages.
Its offshoots are more easily transplanted
than those of any other; it bears quite
heavily in this country (although con-
sidered a shy bearer in Algeria); and it
bears evenly every year, if well treated.
Its root system is rather shallow, how-
ever. It matures as late as any, usually
in October. In flavor it is particularly
mild, having very little of what may be
‘alled the characteristic date taste, and
in fact, more resembles confectionery
than dates. No doubt it will continue
to be sold on this basis for many years
to come.

Menakher, the famous date of Tunisia,
has gained a good deal of notoriety
through its romantic history, but its
performance in the United States has
been something of a disappointment.
The fruit is improving, however, as the
trees grow older. It is one of the largest
dates grown, and the story is that it
was considered the finest in Tunisia,
under the despotic reign of the Beys,
so these rulers used to order the whole
crop from every one who grew Menak-
hers, and then forget to pay. After
this had gone on a good many years, the
growers decided they would rather raise
some inferior date from which they
could derive a little income, so cut
down their Menakher trees, and the
variety 1s practically extinet. The
Bureau of Plant Industry has two trees
in this country, however, and their
offshoots will slowly establish the date
here. Its size, added to its good quality,
is certain to make it valuable.

Rhars, the commonest Algerian varie-
ty, has been planted to a considerable
extent in the United States, and the
fruit, as handled by American methods,
is certainly much preferable to the
disgusting mess sold in the Algerian
markets. Its principal value is earli-
ness, but as the better Persian Gulf

27

dates come into the market, it will lose
this advantage, and I believe it will
lose its popularity. It has proved a
shy bearer in this country, and unless
very carefully handled is a difficult
shipper. The offshoots are hardy and
resistant; the roots go deep down for
water, and the tree requires less ferti-
lization and irrigation than choice varie-
ties like the Deglet Noor. In Algeria
it tends to bear only every other year.
The Arabs consider it the best date
grown from the point of view of health-
fulness, and eat it in immense quanti-
ties without detriment to their diges-
tive organs; they even make it into a
paste with grease and give it to colicky
infants. They also declare that if
buried in the ground it can be taken out
again after six months, in perfect con-
dition.

Dr. Swingle has been advocating the
growth of Rhars in the more favored
spots of the San Joaquin Valley, believing
that experiment would show good dates
for local use could be produced there.
So far as I know, the experiment has not
yet been made. I believe the best
Rhars grown in California have been
on the sandy soil of the Mecca ranch
planted by B. G. Johnson. In the wet
soil of the Tempe garden, it has proved
a great failure, the last report of the
station noting, “unevenness of maturity
to be as serious a commercial defect
in the Rhars dates under the conditions
prevailing in Salt River Valley the past
season as the poor keeping quality of
the fruit when ripe.”

Itima is one of the choicest Algerian
varieties, ranked equal to Deglet Noor
by some natives, and certainly deserves
to be placed second to it. The berry
is large, soft and the color of cafe au lait;
the offshoot is delicate.

Thoory is considered by government
experts to be the best dry date so far
tried out in the United States. It is
a rare variety in the oases of the Western
Zab, Algeria, but eight fine trees are
now growing at the Indio station, from
which the variety can be perpetuated.

Horra, a large, light yellow, dry date
common to Algeria, has been intro-
duced in more quantity, and can be
recommended.

Tadala and Bent Kebala are varieties

California.

7 Mecca,

government experiment station

g at the

from Algeria, fruitin

Rhars,

originating in the M’zab oases of Al-
geria, which are promising for this
country, although not planted on a
commercial scale.

Many other Algerian varieties have
been introduced, but most of them are
still confined to the government ex-
periment stations. Commercial import-
ers during the last few years have prac-
tically limited themselves to the Deglet
Noor, and the field for this is temporar-
ily exhausted. Competition of American
offshoot buyers has also resulted in

doubling the price for this variety
during the past few years, so the Al-
gerian growers have become _ discon-

tented, and it is likely that further
exportation of offshoots from that colony
will be forbidden. This will cause com-
mercial growers in the United States
to turn to the famous dates of the
Persian Gulf, which have been unde-
servedly neglected, solely because Al-
geria was so much more accessible.

Persian Gulf Varieties.

Ten years ago David G. Fairchild of
the Bureau of Plant Industry made a
visit to the Persian Gulf region, hastily
studied the principal varieties, and
brought out offshoots of most of the
good ones. Some of these did not
survive, and although other offshoots
have been obtained from time to time,
by correspondence, no student of date
culture has been in the district since
his trip. Furthermore, the labels on
many of the Persian Gulf dates brought
to this country were lost, so that of
those now at the Mecca station, for
instance, almost none can be definitely
named.

It will thus be understood that these

dates have been tried out under the
least favorable circumstances. Never-

the-less, by their quality and still more
by their early maturity, they are rapidly
winning a place for themselves, par-
ticularly in the hearts of the Arizona
growers, whose climate has led them
to search for new varieties, while Cali-
fornians were confining their attention
to the Deglet Noor. Of the Persian
Gulf dates which have fruited in this
country, the following are of high merit:

Kustawi, “A medium to large, oblong,
soft, sticky date, ripening in August,

29

with stone of small size and little or no
fibre or ‘rag.’ Skin a light golden
brown, very delicate in texture and ad-
hering to the soft golden flesh, which
is of exquisitely rich, sweet date flavor.”
— (Fairchild ).

Maktum, considered one of the two
best sorts in the Bagdad region, closely
resembling the Kustawi, but of finer
quality.

Halawi. This is the date principally
sold on the American market, in very
bad condition, under the trade name
of “Golden Date.’”’ It is the common-
est variety around Basra, but as grown
under American conditions it is a fruit
superior by far to anything Americans
have previously eaten under that name.
It prefers an adobe or clay soil. So far
as I know, the only imported Halawis
have fruited in Arizona, but Fred N.
Johnson of Indio has a seedling Halawi
which happens to reproduce fairly well
the characteristics of the parent, and
is highly esteemed. The Halawi ripens
a little later than the first two men-
tioned, and is described by Fairchild
as “a medium-sized, soft date of sticky
consistency. The stone is medium to
small; there is little fibre present, and
the light brown skin of delicate texture
sticks closely to the flesh, which is
abundant of a deep brown ‘color, golden
toward the stone. It possesses a strong
date flavor and is of unusual sweetness.
It is one of the best packing dates, as
it keeps well and can be sent all over
the world.”

Khadrawi is one of the best tried out
in this country, and is similar in general
characteristics to the Halawi. It is
highly prized in Arizona; Fred N.
Johnson of Indio has an imported palm
which is believed to be this variety, and
which produces dates of excellent qual-
ity, although they demand different
methods of handling than the Deglet
Noor.

Fard, the famous date of Maskat and
the best exported to America, has fruited
in the United States only as a seedling.
It is believed, however, that this date
does even better in this country than
in its own home, and as it is a variety
of particular excellence for packing and
shipping, it is one to be marked as de-
sirable. Sandy soils would probably

30

Preparing West India Gardens’ 1912 shipment of offshoots in Sahara Desert.

suit it best, although the great Semail
Valley of Oman, where it grows, has never
been entered by a man_ scientifically
interested in the study of dates.

Moltagi is a little known Persian
Gulf date enumerated by Director R. H.
Forbes as one that has done well under
conditions at Tempe.

Advantage of Early Varieties.

It may well be doubted, however,
whether we have yet secured the varie-
ties that will eventually prove the most
desirable. The Deglet Noor itself may
be relegated to the lower ranks, as
new countries are laid under contribu-
tion by the growers of the United States,
and it is certain that the early ripening
Persian Gulf dates will do much _ to
minimize the importance of the Deglet
Noor and other late varieties, since the
former will be on the market and all
sold weeks before the latter are. ob-
tainable. The wise grower will, of
course, plant both early and late varie-
ties, thus extending his season from
August 1 to November 1; he certainly
will not confine himself solely to late
varieties, as he has done in the past.
On this point the twenty-second annual
report of the Arizona Agricultural Ex-
periment station says:

“The study of varieties has been
found most gratifying in that several
have been found that will furnish a

substantial basis for future successful
date culture in Arizona. These varie-
ties respond easily and perfectly to artifi-
cial methods of ripening and further-
more mature evenly enough under the
most adverse Salt River Valley condi-
tions so that they may be harvested by
the bunch, and from ninety-five to one
hundred per cent ripened into first
quality fruit of their class. In quality
none of them approaches the Deglet
Noor, but it is believed they will not
enter into competition with that fruit
since they will have been harvested and
consumed weeks before the Deglet Noor
crop matures. Moreover, they will find
an entirely different market, since they
can be produced at a price that will
make them food for everyone, rather
than a delicacy for the wealthy.
“Among the light colored or so-called
‘golden’ dates that meet these condi-
tions very perfectly, have been found
the Khadrawi, the Kustawi, the Maktum
and the Moltagi. The Khadrawi, in
particular, is a most excellent variety,
and handles well in the orchard; the
Kustawi is a close second, although
somewhat inferior in size. Several large
varieties of dark colored dates have
also proved very satisfactory under the
unfavorable climatic conditions of the
past year. These were the Nazl e
Bacha, the Birket el Haggi, and th
. . e
Hayani. Although rather coarse in tex

ure, their great size and general appear-
ance secure a ready market for them.
There seems to be no reasonable doubt
that the culture of any of these varieties
will prove commercially successful under
the conditions prevailing in the more
favorable localities for date growing in
Southern Arizona.”

These choice, early Persian Gulf dates
are to be imported on a large scale next
spring, and with them it is hoped to
bring a large number of offshoots of
the most famous date in the world, the
Khalasa of Hasa. This superlative va-
riety was secured by Mr. Fairchild, but
did not survive. The district around
Hofhoof, where it grows, contains 2,000,-
000 palms, according to the Turkish
census of 1871, and there seems to be
no reason why this should not be se-
cured on a large seale. If it can be es-
tablished in California in that way, it
is likely at once to assume the place
of chief dessert date, supplying the
faney box-trade that has already proved
so profitable.

Most Famous Date in the World.

The explorer, W. G. Palgrave, in his
“Narrative of a Year’s Journey in Cen-
tral and Eastern Arabia,” written in
1863, says:

“Almost the whole space between
Hofhoof and Mebarraz, a distance of
about three miles, is filled up with
gardens, plantations and rushing streams
of water. Here for many leagues around
erow the dates entitled ‘Khalas’—a
word of which the literal and not in-
appropriate English translation is
‘quintessence,’ a species peculiar to
Hasa and facile princeps of its kind.
The fruit itself is rather smaller than
the Kaseem date, of a rich amber color,
verging on ruddiness and semi-trans-
parent. It would be absurd to attempt
by description to give any idea of its
taste; but I beg my Indian readers at
least to believe that a ‘Massigaum’
mango is not more superior to a ‘Jung-
lee’ than is the Khalas fruit to that
current in Syrian and Egyptian marts.
In a word, it is the perfection of the
date. The tree that bears it may by
a moderately practised eye be recog-
nized by its stem, slenderer than that
of the ordinary palm, its less tufted

bl

foliage, and its smoother bark. Another
species,-also limited to this province, is
the Rekab; it would hold the first rank

anywhere else. During my stay in
Arabia I counted a dozen different

kinds of dates, each perfectly distinct
from the other; and I have no doubt
that a longer acquaintance might have
enabled me to reckon a dozen more.
As to the Khalas in particular, its cul-
tivation is an important item among
the rural occupations of Hasa; its
harvest an abundant source of wealth;
and its exportation, which reaches from
Mosoul on the Northwest to Bombay
on the Southeast, nay, I believe, to the
African coast of Zanzibar, forms a
large branch of the local commerce.”

Mr. Fairchild describes it as follows,
in his Bulletin on Persian Gulf dates:

“Khalasa (or Khalasi). A medium-
sized, ovate, sticky date with small
stone and no fibre, ripening as early as
August in the region of Hasa. The
skin is a golden brown and of the most
delicate texture, covering closely the
rich, golden flesh, which is of exquisite
date flavor and with the consistency
of a chocolate caramel. Said to be a
delicate packer and never exported ex-
cept in the form of presents. It has
the renown all over the Persian Gulf
of being the most delicate date in the
world. Of its productiveness or hardi-
ness, little is known, but it is probable
that a sandy soil will suit it better than
an adobe soil, as it comes from the
sandy region of Hasa, which is fed by
underground water-courses. This varie-
ty probably requires surface irrigation
also.”

With this must be mentioned the
Tafilalet date known as ‘‘Medjoul,”
certainly one of the best dates grown.
The oases of Tafilalet are in the Saharan
part of Morocco, where they can at
present hardly be reached by a foreigner,
and but little is known of the date
except that it is largely exported to
England and Spain by the Moors.
Many seeds have been planted in the
United States during the past year,
since Dr. Swingle heralded it as one of
the coming leaders in date culture; and
a Coachella Valley company claims to
have secured a few offshoots of it from
the oasis of Colomb-Bechar, in Algeria,

32

last winter. Dr. Swingle is attempting
this winter to secure authentic offshoots
from Morocco, and to secure more data
relative to the method of artificial
maturation practised, which gives the
flesh the consistency of a chocolate
caramel, and renders it so dry that it
can be shipped anywhere.

The date is larger than most of those
so far introduced to the United States,
dark in color and characterized by a
wrinkled skin. Unfortunately, there is
little prospect of getting offshoots on a
commercial scale for several years, be-
cause of the unsettled state of political
affairs in Morocco, and even then the
government may decide to prohibit the
exportation.

There are a dozen or more other
varieties of superlative dates in the
world, which have not yet been secured
for the United States, and any of these
may turn out to be equal to our best.
The industry will not wait for them,
however, although the Bureau of Plant
Industry is showing a commendable
zeal in securing them; but with the Per-
sian Gulf dates to be secured this winter,
and the North African varieties already
here, there is range enough to suit the
most fastidious grower.

No Danger of Mistake.

The question is often asked, “How
ean one be sure, in buying offshoots,
that they will be true to name—that
he will not be deceived by the seller?”
If he is buying only one or two offshoots,
he must depend on the honesty of the
seller, unless he isas expert .as the
Arabs, who can tell most of the varieties
merely by a glance, under any con-
ditions.

In buying offshoots on a large scale,
for importation, the problem does not
present itself to any marked degree.
Hach variety is characterized by certain
differences in color, in foliage, in the

arrangement of the spines, and par-
ticularly in the arrangement of the

fibres, which are present Just as much
in the offshoot as in the parent tree,
and serve as reliable and invariable
guides to the identity. Consequently,
if one is buying a large number of any
variety, and an odd one is put in the
pile, it sticks out lke a sore thumb

Seven-year-old Khadrawi, imported from the Persian
Gulf, at Indio.

in the midst of so much uniformity—
even the novice could detect it. The
only way in which one could be de-
ceived would be that the whole lot he
bought was one variety, but not the
one he wanted; and this is unthinkable
since, even if most of the many sellers
with whom he must deal were scoundrels
and anxious to cheat, there would al-
ways be a few honest ones; and if one
man out of twenty sold what he prom-
ised, the difference in the appearance of
his offshoots would at once lead to an
inquiry that would result in exposing
the whole deal.

In practice, the American buyer al-
ways employs an experienced Arab, a
man of standing in the community, who
has a reputation to sustain, and who
can be thoroughly trusted. This man
‘an tell by a glance at each offshoot,
whether it is true to name or not, and
when the whole shipment is brought
together, a far less practised eye can
check up the list. Sa there is practi-
cally no chance for mistakes when off-
shoots are bought in this manner.

During the first importation of off-
shoots, when they were sent in by
natives without any supervision, to
persons who had in some cases never
seen an offshoot before, there was occa-
sional deception. The shipment of 1889
proved to contain a number of males,
labeled as females of choice Egyptian
varieties; and even as late as the govern-
ment importation of 1904-5, which
brought the Menakher to this country,
several of the offshoots under that

name were males. Growers have now
had enough experience to recognize
the male offshoot without error; but

even without this slight experience, if
those first importations had been super-
vised as all commercial importations
now are, there would have been no
room for fraud. In the Menakher case
offshoots were altogether refused for
a long time, but finally Mr. Kearney’s
importunities prevailed and he was
furnished a few. Someone may have
thought to curry favor by seemingly
increasing the number through the ad-
dition of a miscellaneous lot of offshoots
under the name of Menakher; but such
a mistake could not happen now.
Profits of Date Growing.

Finally, a few words on that delicate
and interesting question, the profits
of the date industry.

Although there will always be a high-
priced trade in faney box dates, such
as the Deglet Noor or Khalasa, not
much of the total output can be ex-
pected to sell for any length of time at
$1.00 a pound, as it did in Los Angeles
last fall. It is reasonable to suppose,
however, that for this confectionery
trade, prices will not fall below fifty
cents a pound for some years. Then
there will be the larger trade in strictly
first-class dates, preferably in small
boxes, but possibly in bulk, at all seasons
of the year; the most profitable part
of this will be the early sales of Persian
Gulf dates during the months of August
and September. These clean and _ at-
tractive home-grown dates ought to
bring not less than twenty to thirty cents
a pound, for many years to come. Finally
there will be the inferior dates, the im-
perfect ones and the inferior varieties,
sold in bulk as the imported dates are
now dispensed, but cleaner and more
attractive; these can profitably be sold

33

at prices that will meet the competition
of the imported dates, or cut below
them—ten or fifteen cents a pound.
It will be many years before the pro-
duction in the United States can become
sufficiently large to lower these prices.

Furthermore, the consumption is cer-
tain to increase as the production in-
creases. At present the United States
consumes a ridiculously small amount—
only 22,000,000 pounds a year, or some-
thing like a pound per family per year,
whereas in Arabic countries a family
often consumes ten or fifteen pounds
per day. Many residents of the United
States have never tasted clean, fresh
dates, and when they find they can buy
them at reasonable prices, the demand
is certain to jump. The present con-
sumption could be multiplied by ten,
twenty or thirty and still be small
compared with that of fruits that are
less nutritious.

If one allows seventy-five pounds per
tree, which is below the mark, and
forty trees to the acre, he can cut off
as much of the proceeds for the middle-
man and retailer as he likes, and still
have a profit that will suit the most
fastidious. Let him add to this the
profit on 40 or 50 offshoots per acre,
at even $4.00 apiece—half the present
price—and he will make the proposition
still more attractive. Best of all, the
element of uncertainty and risk has
almost been removed through the per-

fection of the methods of artificial
ripening. As the date will keep in-
definitely, and does not require to be

marketed on the spot like oranges and
most other fruits, the grower can always
avoid a glutted market, if there ever
should be one, and hold his fruit for
better prices, just as wheat growers do.

The situation looks rosy, and is look-
ing rosier each year, as new plantations
come into bearmg and again demon-
strate the possibilities. I do not see
how a careful, intelligent rancher with
a plantation of choice imported varie-
ties, who gives the matter his personal
attention, can make less than $500.00
per acre; and I believe those who enter
the industry now, getting advantage
of the high prices for fruit and offshoots
during the first few years, will not fail
to clean up several times that sum
annually.

Are You Interested
in Date Culture?

—\©|| |

If so I have a good proposition to offer
you.

DATES are the coming profitable crop
of California fruits.

The area where they can grow is limit-
ed. The market for their sale is practically
unlimited, and the demand constantly in-
creasing.

Somebody is going to make a lot of
money during the next few years out of dates.

WHY NOT SECURE YOUR SHARE?

1@ ]

To those of limited means who wish to secure a
home and an income, one acre to five acres of dates
is the ideal investment, write for particulars to,

George Wharton James,
The Date Colony,
Thermal, Calif.

———_ eS

ATE GROWING

CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA

The date Industry is adapted to the Coachella Valley, the
Imperial Valley, the Colorado River Country and some parts of
Arizona. In these regions the date thrives as well as in Asia
or Africa, and is far more profitable.

As Importers of Subtropical Plants and Trees we are prepared
to make importations of strong, healthy off-shoots from palms
of the choicest varieties growing in any country.

Our importation from the countries surrounding the Persian
Gulf, the world’s greatest date region, and from North Africa,
will enable us to deliver about April or May, 1913, some ex-
ceptionally valuable stock.

Correspondence is solicited from those interested in Date
Growing, whether they desire to secure a few imported off-shoots
for the home garden, or a larger number for commercial planting.

Our illustrated Pamphlet on Date Growing will be mailed free
upon request.

We are prepared to demonstrate to anyone the careful char-
acter of our work.

WEST INDIA GARDENS

F. O. POPENOE, President and Manager
T. U. BARBER, Secretary and Treasurer
Importers and Growers of
SUBTROPICAL PLANTS AND TREES
Marengo Avenue and Calaveras St.
Altadena, California

Telephone Fair Oaks 1577 Pasadena Exchange

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BEST DATE LANDS IN THE WORLD

SOLD ON TEN YEARS TIME
ONE TENTH CASH

Souhern Pacific Lands

IN THE

Coachella Valley

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

20, 40 and 80 Acre Tracts

B. A. McALLASTER | G. E. WANTLAND
LAND COMMISSIONER General Sales Agent
FLOOD BUILDING 410 Grosse Bldg.

SAN FRANCISCO Los Angeles

HO FOR THE WEST!

AND LEARN ALL ABOUT IT. ALL ABOUT
HISTORY, LITERATURE, ART
: I S BEAUTY, GRANDEUR, MYSTERY
INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, WEALTH
| S | DEVELOPMENT---Pas Future
I RESOURCES. and OPPORTUNITIES.

is the mirror which reflects
the life of “THE WEST ”

S$ O --CHECK OR NN OE ONe R--WITH YOUR ADDRESS, MAILED TO
1.5 US WILL BRING “OUT WEST” TO YOU MONTHLY, 12 TIMES

READ OUT WEST

218 NEW HIGH STREET, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

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