CHAPTER II 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 



Conditions generally favorable to the production 

 of dates are well understood. It is not a tropical 

 but a sub-tropical culture. No summer heat is too 

 great for it, but it will also tolerate severe frost in 

 winter; it is easily satisfied as regards soil, if the water 

 supply is suflBcient. These are the conditions under 

 which its culture has been carried on in the past, and 

 they still hold good; but recent developments indicate 

 that dates may be successfully grown in regions which 

 have hitherto been considered entirely unsuited to the 

 palm; therefore the subject demands a somewhat 

 careful study. 



In the United States, Southern California is 

 indisputably the region best adapted to commercial 

 date culture. Coachella Valley, with its slight rainfall, 

 intense summer heat, and prevailingly sandy soil 

 exactly fulfills the conventional requirements, as they 

 were outlined in the preceding paragraph. For late 

 varieties, which require a high sum total of heat to 

 mature, and for the Saharan varieties in general, it 

 can not be surpassed. It would probably prove 

 equally well suited to varieties from the interior of 

 Arabia, if we could secure any such. Imperial Valley 

 is almost as well adapted to these same varieties, 

 although its soil is predominantly clay, and often a 

 very stiff clay. But in the Sahara, Degiet Ntirs 

 which grow in the heavy clay of the Ziban are scarcely 

 inferior to those which grow in the light sand of the 

 Suf. The lower part of the Colorado River Valley 



