PART FIVE: SEMI-TROPICAL FRUITS 



CHAPTER XXIX 

 DATE CULTURE IN OUR DESERT AREAS 



Ever since the arid, semi-tropical regions of the United States be- 

 came known through the narratives of explorers, the date palm (Phoe- 

 nix dactylifera) has been projected as a plant likely to demonstrate 

 commercial value in American like that which it has held for centuries 

 in the arid regions of Asia and Africa. This idea was also cherished 

 even at an earlier date by the Spanish missionaries who brought the 

 palm to California, as will be described presently. During the last 

 decade the problem of introducing and establishing a date-growing 

 industry has been taken up more seriously and systematically than ever 

 before and must now be looked upon as approaching successful solution. 

 As, however, the undertaking is still in an experimental stage and 

 appeals to relatively few people as a line of investment, no attempt will 

 be made to discuss the date in detail. Instead, citation will be made of 

 sources whence the reader who desires them can easily secure informa- 

 tion of date-growing methods in the old countries, discussion of their 

 suitability to our conditions and suggestions of ways to enter upon date- 

 growing in California.* 



The date palm was brought to California by the padres, and the 

 oldest date trees in the State are the survivors of their early plantings. 

 Such trees are found at the San Diego Mission. They are conjectured 

 to be more than a century old, and they, have survived drought and 

 neglect, making unsuccessful effort at fruiting, for, according to com- 

 mon report, the fruit does not ripen, but whether owing to the unfavor- 

 able conditions indicated, or to lack of fertilization of the bloom, is not 

 known. There are trees at Ventura, on the site of the garden of the 

 old mission at San Buena Ventura, about forty feet in height and ten 

 feet in circumference at the base, with long, graceful fern-like leaves, 

 which put forth about thirty feet from the ground. 



The ill success of these old trees in the direction of fruit bearing 

 probably long prevented further attention to the date as a profitable 

 growth. Still there were date palms grown from seed of the com- 

 mercial date planted here and there for ornament or out of curiosity, 

 and in due course of time the fruit appeared. The first public exhibi- 

 tion of California dates known to the writer was made at the Mechanic's 



*The Date Palm and its Utilization in the Southwestern States, by Walter T. Swingle, 

 Bulletin 53, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dpt. of Agr., Washington, 1904. 



Date Varieties and Date Culture in Tunis, by T. H. Kearney, Bulletin 92, Ibid, 1906. 



Date Growing in Southern California, by S. C. Masin. Report of Riverside Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Convention, State Horticultural Commissioner, Sacramento, 1908. 



Date Growing in the Old and New Worlds, by Paul B. Popenoe, Altadena, California 

 1913. A fine, illustrated treatise. 



Also publications of Arizona Experiment Station, Tucson, and California Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Berkeley. 



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