96 DATEGROWING 



if it comes when the dates are ripening it may make 

 trouble, but experience in Coachella Valley last year, 

 when a September storm brought a precipitation of 

 one and one-half inches, proved that most of the 

 fears which have been entertained on this score are 

 groundless — the total loss to the crop probably did 

 not exceed five per cent. Of course, if rain should be 

 followed by a period of moist days it would be more 

 serious. This rarely occurs in a desert country; 

 should it do so when the dates were ripening, the only 

 recourse would be to pick the crop at once and finish 

 its ripening artificially by the quick process. For 

 this reason, every grower should have the means of 

 carrying out this process. 



Sometimes fruit falls prematurely from the palm 

 as a result of bad weather; at other times it falls 

 with no apparent reason. The trouble seems to be 

 a question of variety, and few of the good varieties 

 annoy one in this way. If they do, and you are 

 enlightened, you will hunt through the plantation for 

 a crab's leg, which some enemy may have tied to one 

 of your palms; it is well known that this causes the 

 fruit to fall, and to prevent such a catastrophe 

 intelligent growers usually have a sheep's skull set 

 on a pole in their plantations: it is a sure charm and 

 counter-irritant or antidote. Should even this fail, 

 the only orthodox recourse is to hang on each of your 

 palms a slip of paper bearing the verse,* "He holds 

 up the heavens to keep them from falling on the earth 

 unless as a result of His will, because God is merciful 

 and compassionate toward men." Few palms can 

 withstand the influence of such a thought as that. 



*Koran, XXII. 64. 



