Timely Hints for Farmers. 



107 



DATE PALM CULTURE— A WORD IN TIME. 

 No. 1 6, May 15. 

 It has long been known that the date palm will live and bear 



fruit in the state of Sonora and adjacent portions of Mexico. 



There are a number of lofty palms at Hermosillo, for instance, 



that are probably 200 years of age, and 60,000 bearing trees exist 



in the single town of 

 San Ignacio, Lower 

 California. More re- 

 cently, both by acci- 

 dent and design, seed- 

 ling trees have been es- 

 tablished in Southern 

 Arizona and found to 

 bear well. 



Date Palm seed- 

 lings, however, as is 

 usual with the seed- 

 lings from highly de- 

 veloped varieties of 

 fruit trees, are likely 

 to be inferior in quality 

 of product, so that as 

 yet the home grown 

 trees of Arizona have 

 for the most part yield- 

 ed indifferent results. 

 But in the date grow- 

 ing countries of the 

 Old World the Arabs, 

 and other races, have 

 developed the date 

 until in excellence and 

 variety it corresponds 

 with other cultivated 

 fruits. 

 Knowing that the conditions, especially of climate, enable the 



tree to produce in Southern Arizona, it is evidently necessary to 



Fig. 13. 



Date palms near Hermosillo, Sonora, about 

 175 vears old. 



