94 



TILLEES OF THE GKOUND 



CHAP. 



carry out this commission; but by 1901 the date 

 was fairly established in parts of Western North 

 America, where it seems likely to do well. Thus 

 it took more than a hundred years to establish the 

 date thoroughly in the New World. 



Let us look at the work of the American expert 



FIG. 22. Setting out Date Offshoots from North Africa in Arizona. 



in a little more detail, and see how he got the 

 offshoots of the- good kinds, what he learnt by 

 studying the Arabs' date gardens, and what kind of 

 advice he was able to give the American cultivators. 

 To get the best offshoots possible, he went to 

 Biskra, the garden of dates, which lies in Algeria 

 on an oasis close to the northern boundary of the 

 Sahara desert, and just south of the Atlas Mountains. 



