viii DATES IN NORTH AMERICA 97 



carried vid New Orleans to Arizona. Here they 

 were set out in an experimental garden, after 

 having been carefully fumigated in case there 

 should be any dangerous insect pests brought over 

 with them. 



But the offshoots were not enough ; the question 

 of how they should be grown is just as important, 

 and the expert had therefore to learn all he could, 

 and, with the help of others, to apply the knowledge 

 he gained in this way to the special conditions of 

 North America. 



We all know the Arab proverb which says that 

 the date should have its head in the fire and its 

 feet in the water, or, to put the matter more poetic- 

 ally : " The date-palm, the queen of trees, must 

 have her feet in running water, and her head in 

 the burning sky." It was not just at once, how- 

 ever, that the cultivators learnt that this means 

 that the date is not a true desert plant like the 

 Mexican cactuses. It is not an inhabitant of the 

 Sahara, but of the oases of the Sahara. It will 

 not ripen its fruit in a country where there is 

 summer rain or where the air in summer is damp ; 

 but it will not grow at all unless the roots have 

 abundant water. 



Now this combination of requirements means 

 generally that the date-palm must be artificially 

 irrigated ; and it is this which makes it expensive 



H 



