3UKEAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 179 



seedling stocks are once worked up vegetatively produced propagat- 

 ing stock takes care of itself in the regular course of production. 



This lily is found to be most adaptable. Plants in vegetative 

 condition in the field Avhen winter sets in can be potted up even 

 when showing buds and flowered without wilting. The plants will 

 stand 2 or 3 degrees of frost even in bud, but in case of plants 

 which have not begun to form a stem a temperature of 20° F. will do 

 little, if any, injury under the climatic conditions prevailing at 

 Washington. 



For best results the bulbs should be planted late (early Xovember). 

 If this is done, no top growth occurs until spring in this latitude. 

 It is for this reason that the plant is better adapted to this climate 

 than to that of the Gulf coast, where it finds growing conditions in 

 winter interspersed with an occasional drop in temperature to 10 

 degrees or more below freezing. Under such a condition the plants 

 are not hardy. 



The practicability of the home production of the Easter lily has 

 been demonstrated. The production has been put upon a seedling 

 basis, with handling methods comparable to those now in vogue with 

 many herbaceous biennials and perennials. 



Palestine irises. — Work on these stocks is olso giving gratifying 

 results. Very poor results have usually been had with these most 

 handsome of all the genus Iris, in this country, but the location at 

 Chico, Calif., seems to be such as to assure success in growing them. 

 Doubtless a situation about 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher in the moun- 

 tains in the same region would be better adapted. HoweAcr. with a 

 mulch to prevent the excessive summer baking of the soil good stocks 

 can be produced. 



Man}' of these varieties are coming to be recognized as good florists' 

 items, and our investigations show that they can be brought into 

 flower in ffanuary and possibly by Christmas. 



DATE CULTURE. 



The date industry established by the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 in the hot irrigated valleys of Arizona and California shows promise 

 of becoming one of the great fruit industries of the Southwest. Cer- 

 tain varieties of dates succeed very well in the United States and 

 yield a product of superlative excellence, much superior to any now 

 imported. It is believed that the culture of dessert dates of high 

 quality offers a very j)romising field for future commercial develop- 

 ment wherever the soil and climatic conditions permit. 



.1 ney^ method of ripenivri dates. — A discovery of the greatest im- 

 portance, the Trabut-Drummond bag method of ripening dates, was 

 made in the autumn of 1019 in connection with the investigations 

 of the estal)lishment of date culture. on a commercial scale in the 

 United States. By this method heavy paper bags are put on the 

 bundle i of fruit when the latter have reached full size but before the 

 dates have begun to soften in tlie final rij:)ening process. These bags 

 protect the ripening fruit against dust and insects, and, what is a 

 further advantage, against dews and rains, while at the same time 

 they equalize the humidity and temperature; that is, the humidity is 

 kept up over the hot mid-afternoon ])eriod, and the tem])erature is 

 kei^t up during the cold part of the night preceding sunrise. 



