Timely Hints for Farmers. 



109 



avail ourselves of the centuries of Old World experience, bring 

 the best varieties from the Sahara, Egypt and Arabia, and estab- 

 lish them here. 



This is what the Arizona Experiment Station with the help 

 of the Department of Agriculture is now doing. One small im i 

 portation, sent on to determine the best mode of shipment has 

 been safely landed in the orchard south of Tempe and another 

 large one is now just starting from Algiers. 



The importance of quality is evident from the following ex- 

 aminations of 3 samples of fruit; No. 1 was purchased in Guay- 

 inas, Sonora, and came from Mexican seedling trees in Lower Cal- 

 ifornia; No. 2 was from the Tucson market, supposedly commer- 

 cial African dates; No. 3 was a choice sample from Algiers by 

 way of the Paris markets'. 



It is not surprising that the delicious large fruits of sampl e 

 3 sell for 35c in less than 1 pound boxes in the cheap markets 

 of Washington, D. C, while Nos. 1 and 2 bring as low as 10c a 

 pound in the dear markets of the Southwest. 



It will be at least four years, however, before suckers will be 

 available for distribution in any considerable number from the 

 experimental orchard, and even then a transplanted sucker re- 

 quires several years to come into heavy bearing. The date palm 

 is famously slow to yield returns, indeed the Mexicans call it "El 

 arbol del porvenir," the tree of the future, but it has correspond- 

 ing advantages: I. It will grow in the strongest alkaline soil 

 and its roots thrive in the alkaline ground water often found at or 

 below the surface of such soils. In any irrigated district, at the 

 lower levels, there are usually considerable areas of alkaline lands 

 with water near the surface, resulting from the seepage from higher 

 levels. When once established in such a locality the date palm is 



