46 DATEGROWING 



The important date-growing countries of the 

 world are Arabia, Mesopotamia, and North Africa, 

 including Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In 

 every one of these regions propagation, unless by 

 accident, is solely from offshoots, which are taken 

 from palms of recognized merit. 



Experience of centuries, then, has led to the 

 same result in every part of the world where dates 

 can be grown. It has proved that high-grade dates 

 of uniform quality can, under existing circumstances, 

 be produced only by offshoots, and that the plantation 

 of seedlings for such a purpose is not practicable. 



To this experience of native growers is now 

 added the testimony of modern scientists, who are 

 not swayed by theory or misled by incomplete ob- 

 servations in practice. These men have surveyed 

 the entire field, have gathered all the evidence avail- 

 able, sifted it, weighed it. Some of the greatest living 

 scientists have devoted their attention to the subject. 

 They are unanimous in agreeing that the planting of 

 seedlings with the idea of growing dates for the fancy 

 trade is inadvisable. So far as the records show, there 

 is not a scientist of established reputation in the 

 world today who advocates the planting of seedling 

 dates, under the present circumstances, for the purpo.se 

 of producing high-class fruit. 



The testimony of the rest of the world, then, is 

 unanimous. But in the United States, during the last 

 ten years, large quantities of date seeds have been 

 planted, under better conditions than have ever 

 before been furnished. If seedlings could be successful 

 anywhere, they would be in the United States, where 

 time and expense have been lavished in order to give 

 them a chance to do their best. 



