184 DATE GROWING 



dealing with a perishable commodity like citrus 

 fruits. It costs the lemon grower more than $300 

 per acre to handle the crop; the cost of picking and 

 marketing 5000 pounds of dates per acre ought to be 

 considerably less than this.* 



We find, then, that the date grower has the 

 advantage of the citrus grower so far as cost of 

 production is concerned, while his profits from the 

 sale of fruit are much greater. There is every reason 

 to believe that the grower can bring a date plantation 

 into bearing, including the cost of land and water, 

 for not more than $1000 an acre, and, after it is in 

 bearing, pay the entire expense of upkeep, for some 

 years at least, by the value of his offshoots, leaving 

 all the income from the fruit as profit; and this net 

 income ought to be, in a well-managed plantation of 

 the best varieties, not less than $1000 per acre per 

 year. For the first few years, while fancy prices 

 prevail, the grower may secure a much larger annual 

 net return if he is keen enough to grasp the op- 

 portunities. And since he may pay a large part of the 

 expense of bringing his plantation into bearing by 

 growing a subsidiary crop, we may well conclude 

 that there are few agricultural opportunities today 

 more attractive than that presented by the cult- 

 ure of the date palm. 



*A11 the information regarding the citras industry is from Bui. 

 No. 9 of the Citrus Protective League of Cal., Los Angeles, Jan., 

 1913: "The California Lemon Industry," by G. Harold Powell and 

 F. 0. Wallschlaeger. 



