Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 317 



From this statement, it appears that 71 per cent of the suck- 

 ers, including 22 varieties, are established; 11 per cent are yet 

 doubtful; and 18 per cent are dead. This result is quite satis- 

 factory considering the experimental methods of shipment em- 

 ployed, the two months' journey during the hot season, and the 

 unfavorable conditions at the time the plants arrived. 



In tiacing out the causes which influenced final results it ap- 

 pears : 



1. That it is much better to transport the suckers imme- 

 diately after cutting them from the parent tree than to grow them 

 in tubs or garden before shipment. The two methods resulted 

 as follows: 



Also, a small lot of 6 palms grown i year in tubs at Algiers, 

 were received in the tubs of earth in 1899, at Tempe, having been 

 necessarily somewhat jarred in transit. Five of these perished 

 slowly, and the remaining one, after starting to grow, being 

 moved a few inches to straighten a row, also died. It seems 

 that at the time when the date sucker is creating its root system, 

 it is sensitive to disturbance, being much more hardy immediately 

 after severing from the tree and before its vitality has been ex- 

 pended in the output of new roots. 



2. The different methods of packing employed present no 

 marked advantages over each other. Those palms which were 

 shipped with no packing whatever, came through as well, or bet- 

 ter than, those carefully bound in wet moss or packed in char- 

 coal. As a precaution, however, against unusual delay in transit 

 it is probably safer to bind coverings of wet moss about the bases 

 of the suckers and provide for renewal of moisture on the road. 



3. Fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas for the destruc- 

 tion of scale, does not readily injure the hard, dry foliage of the 

 date palm. These suckers were subjected for 1 to 12 hours to. 3, 



