B. P. I.— 202. 



DATE VARIETIES AND DATE CULTURE IN 



TUNIS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the autumn and winter of lOO-t-o, while traveling as agri- 

 cultural explorer for the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction and 

 Distribution, the writer, at the suggestion of Mr. W. T. Swingle, 

 made two trips to the oases of southern Tunis in order to study the 

 varieties of the date palm grown there and to secure offshoots of the 

 more promising sorts for introduction into the United States. The 

 first visit was made in October and November, the period when the 

 fruits of most of the varieties are ripening and when the harvest is 

 in full progress. On that occasion six weeks were spent in the more 

 important oases, and a careful study of the chief varieties was made. 

 This was considered an essential preliminary to selecting varieties 

 for importation, as ver}^ little has been done by Europeans in study- 

 ing the characters of the almost innumerable varieties of the date 

 palm and in ascertaining the relative merits of the different kinds. 



Nowhere, perhaps, does a greater number of promising varieties 

 occur within a restricted area than in these Tunis oases, and the 

 opportunity for comparison of widely differing types was an excep- 

 tionally good one. In the course of the investigations a collection 

 of 97 samples, representing 93 distinct varieties, was obtained. De- 

 scriptions of 105 varieties were drawn up on the sj)ot from freshly 

 gathered fruits, and in many cases the characters of the palms 

 themselves were noted. The fruits of 85 varieties were photo- 

 graphed in natural size, and photographs of the trees of 34 varieties 

 were made. 



Much information was obtained regarding the fruits of the dif- 

 ferent varieties, their size, appearance, sweetness, flavor, time of 

 ripening, productiveness, and keeping qualities. The season chosen 

 for the visit allowed tlie interesting process of harvesting the dates 

 to be observed. Attention was also paid to the subjects of irriga- 

 tion, cultural methods, and of saline or " alkali " soils in relation to 

 the date palm. 



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