CHAPTER XXX 



THE DATE* 



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

 became known through the narratives of explorers, the date palm 

 (Phoenix dactylifera) has been projected as a plant likely to demon- 

 strate commercial value in America 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 two decades the problem of introducing and estab- 

 lishing a date-growing industry has been taken up more seriously 

 and systematically than ever before and has attained success. 



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

 oldest date trees in the State are the survivors of their early plant- 

 ings. 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. They made no record of fruit-bearing. There 

 were also unfruitful date palms at other missions. 



The ill success of these old trees in fruit bearing long prevented 

 attention to the date as a profitable growth. Still there were date 

 palms grown from seed of the commercial date planted here and 

 there for ornament or out of curiosity, and in due course of time 

 the fruit appeared. The first public exhibition of California dates 

 known to the writer was made at the Mechanic's Institute Fair, in 

 San Francisco, in September, 1877. The fruit was grown on the 

 south bank of Putah Creek, the northern boundary of Solano 

 County, the situation being slightly above the level of the plain of 

 the Sacramento Valley, which lies east of it. The plants were 

 grown by the late J. R. Wolfskill, from seed of commercial dates 

 purchased in San Francisco, and planted in 1858 or 1859. The seed 

 germinated readily, and the young plants were set out in a row 

 about 100 feet south of Putah Creek, on a rich, fine, sandy loam 

 lying about 25 feet above the bed of the creek. The plants received 

 good cultivation, but no irrigation. 



Another bearing date palm stands about a mile eastward of the 

 situation just described, near the residence of the late J. R. Wolf- 

 skill. It was grown from seed of the date of commerce, which was 

 planted in 1863, and the tree bore its first fruit in 1880. Near it 



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

 Bulletin 53, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. 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 jCommissioner, Sacramento, 1908. 



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

 1913. A fine, illustrated treatise. 



Propagation and Culture of the Date Palm, by Bruce Drummond, Coachella, California; 

 Farmers' Bulletin No. 1016, U. S. Dept. of Agr., Washington, D. C., January, 1919. 



Manual of Tropical and Semitropical Fruits, by Wilson Popenoe, Macmillan Co., New 

 York, 1920. 



