DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND 

 HORTICULTURE. 



The work of the year has consisted of the following : A 

 continuation of several lines of experiment begun three years pre- 

 viously, — orchard management, date culture, the growing of 

 wheat, corn, melons, and potatoes, and the culture of Eucalvpt 

 trees ; a continuation of one line begun one year previously, — the 

 relation of temperatures to growing crops ; and of an in- 

 vestigation of four subjects taken up during the past year, — 

 cotton culture, strawberry culture, the "duty" of irrigating wa- 

 ter, and a study of evaporation from water and from soil surfaces. 

 Three lines of experiment were considered to have been pretty 

 thoroughly worked out for this region, and have not been con- 

 tinued during the past year, — sugar-beet culture, vegetable 

 growing and green-manuring. 



DATE CULTURE. 



The heavy fruiting of several of the date trees upon the 

 Station farm, and of many trees in other parts of the region about 

 Phoenix during the past year, furnished an excellent opportunity 

 to make some observations regarding date culture that heretofore 

 had been hardly possible. In the first place, it seems now to be 

 pretty well established that most date trees of the valley, espe- 

 cially the heavy-fruiting ones, bear only on alternate years. 

 During the summer of 1900 all or nearly all female trees, in the 

 valley bore a full crop, while during 1899 very few bore dates, 

 and during 1 901 comparatively few are bearing heavily. The prin- 

 cipal enemy of the date thus far has been the birds, and it seems 

 pretty well established that it will be necessary to protect with a 

 covering of light cloth each individual bunch, at least until dates 

 are produced in larger quantities than at present. The quantity 

 of dates produced at the Station farm gave an opportunity to 

 make some experiments in packing and marketing this fruit. It 

 was found that the dates ripening during early autumn (Septem- 



