DASKAM 



1706 



DATE AND THE DATE PALM 



only the strongest, or "fittest," survive. The 

 special qualities are inherited which make these 

 individuals superior to those that perish ; the 

 next generation starts from a higher plane, and 

 so on through successive generations. A con- 

 tinuation of this unconscious selecting process 

 accounts for the peculiarities of the existing 

 species; the result of the selective process he 

 called "perfect adaptation." This adaptation 

 theory is of fundamental importance in the 

 scheme of evolution. 



In 1871 Danvin gave to the world a second 

 epoch-making book, The Descent of Man, in 

 which he extended his theory to include the 

 human race. Though at the time he brought 

 upon himself the severe criticism of those who 

 interpreted as actual fact the Bible story of 

 the Creation, yet since his death the underlying 

 principles of evolution as applied to man have 

 come to be generally accepted. 



The later years of the great naturalist were 

 devoted to the elaboration of his theories, 

 and though he labored under the worst of 

 handicaps continual ill-health his persever- 

 ance and industry bore fruit in a remarkable 

 list of publications. These include Fertiliza- 

 tion of Orchids, Expression of the Emotions 

 in Man and Animals, Different forms of Tlow- 

 ers in Plants of the Same Species and The 

 Power of Movement in Plants. He was buried 

 in Westminster Abbey. B.M.W. 



Consult Thomson's Darwinism, and Human 

 Life; Francis Darwin's The Foundations of the 

 Origin of Species. 



DAS'KAM, JOSEPHINE DODGE. See BACON, 

 JOSEPHINE DODGE DASKAM. 



DATE AND THE DATE PALM. In the hot, 

 dry lands of deserts and caravans, and in the 

 land of pyramids and mummies grows that 

 stately tree which so constantly appears in 

 poetry and proverbs of the East, the date palm, 

 the palm tree of Scripture. On that tree, at a 

 distance of fifty, sixty or even a hundred feet 

 from the ground, grow golden bunches of a fruit 

 which for as many as four thousand years has 

 been one of the principal articles of food for the 

 brown-skinned peoples of the lands of North- 

 ern Africa and Southwestern Asia. The tree 

 is also cultivated in China, and in France and 

 Italy. 



Next to the cocoanut palm, the date palm 

 is without doubt the most interesting and use- 

 ful of the palm family. The tall, straight stem, 

 nearly the same thickness throughout its length, 

 throws from its summit a magnificent crown 

 of large, feather-shaped leaves which have been 



used in religious services of pagans, Jews and 

 Christians from earliest times. There, too, 

 appear the inconspicuous flowers, male and 

 female on separate trees. Later, if fertilization 

 has been secured by placing a bunch of pollen- 

 bearing blossoms in the tree with the female 



IN A NORTH AFRICAN ORCHARD 



flowers, the flower stalks bear twenty- to twenty- 

 five-pound bunches of from 180 to 200 dates. 



These palms begin to bear from six to ten 

 years after planting, and produce each from 100 

 to 600 pounds of fruit a year, bearing for a cen- 

 tury or more. Date palms require a very hot, 

 dry climate having an average temperature of 

 90 F. for three months of the year. A sandy, 

 alkaline soil is satisfactory. Plenty of water 

 must alv*ys reach the roots, so irrigation and 

 artesian wells are made use of, for the fruit 

 will not ripen unless the summer season is 

 rainless. In Algiers there is an oasis where the 

 trees are grown in deep pits dug in the soil, 

 so the roots may reach the moisture far below 

 the surface. 



The Fruit. Although it is a light golden color 

 when on the tree, most people know the date 

 in its dried form as an oblong, fleshy, sweet 

 fruit about two inches long, deep russet in color, 

 containing a hard, oval seed with one deep 

 furrow. Dates are eaten either fresh or dried. 

 Cakes of them pounded and kneaded together 

 are the food of the Arabs who traverse the 

 deserts. 



As the food value of dates is high, their 

 nutritive qualities being equal to those of 

 wheat and corn flour, efforts have been made 

 to cultivate date palms in the United States. 

 The area devoted to commercial date culture 

 is limited to sych regions as the Salton Basin 

 and hot interior valleys of Central California; 

 the valley of the Colorado River to the Nevada 

 boundary; the Ipwer Salt and Gila river valleys 

 in Arizona, and a small portion of the lower 



