156 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



trees came from Egypt in tubs of earth 

 and spent the winter in a green-house 

 at Tucson. They had suffered from 

 the fourteen days' trip from New York 

 to Tucson, but in September, 1902, all 

 but three seemed certain to live. A 

 shipment of 212 suckers from Arabia 

 and Beluchistan was received in June, 

 1902, but it is impossible to say at this 

 time how many will survive. 



There are now growing about 550 im- 

 ported trees and 60 local seedlings. 

 There has been no appearance of the 

 worst enemy of the tree, the Date Palm 

 scale, owing to careful and successful 

 fumigation, and it has been shown that 

 the pest is easily manageable and should 

 give but little trouble. 



As a commercial venture it must be 

 admitted that certain elements of risk 

 must be considered. So far the suita- 

 bility of various districts for the most 

 valuable varieties of the Old World 

 palms is not known. Unfortunately 

 temperature and soil records required for 

 accurate comparisons between the old 

 and new habitat have not been made 

 thoroughly, although the data obtained 

 during the past summer in Algeria and 

 Egypt by Mr. T. H. Kearney, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, and Mr. 

 Thomas H. Means, of the Bureau of 

 Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 should prove of great value. 



Commercial conditions in America 

 must enter largely into the considera- 

 tions Of profit. The Kabyles and Bed- 

 ouins, for instance, depend on the dates 

 only slightly sweet as a staple article of 

 food, and growers probably realize 

 greater profits from these than from the 

 exceedingly sweet dates used as con- 

 fections in America. So that a home 

 market for the latter kind only is open 

 to the American grower, unless the less 

 sweet varieties become an article of 

 common diet. 



Date palms need plenty of water, but 

 having that, they should grow well on 

 much of the alkaline soil of New Mex- 

 ico, Arizona, and southern California. 

 They come into bearing early and pro- 

 duce fruit for forty, fifty, and perhaps 

 even one hundred years. Therefore 

 shrewd judgment should be used in 

 planting for future commercial needs. 



In conclusion it must be stated that 

 there is, for many reasons, great risk in 

 importing trees and suckers, and at this 

 time it seems that home-planted seed- 

 lings and native suckers should prove 

 most profitable. While the industry is 

 still in its most incipient stages, there 

 are grounds for belief that the Date 

 Palm can find congenial conditions in 

 America, and that its growth may add 

 an important agricultural industry to 

 certainl ocalities. 



MOTIONS OF UNDERGROUND WATERS. 



INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WATER BENEATH 

 THE GROUND, ITS MEASUREMENT AND USES. 



PROF. CHARLES S. SCHUCH- 

 TER, in a paper published by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, says that the 

 amount of water within the crust of 

 the earth is enormous, amounting to 

 565,000,000,000,000 cubic yards. This 

 estimate is based upon the supposition 

 that the average depth which waters can 

 penetrate beneath the surface is 6 miles 

 below the land and 5 miles below the 

 ocean floor. This vast accumulation, 

 if placed upon the earth, would cover its 

 entire surface to a uniform depth of from 



3, ooo to 3, 500 feet. Under the influence 

 of gravitation the water is generally in 

 motion, and the object of Professor 

 Schlichter's paper is to describe the rate 

 and manner of its overflow and the laws 

 governing the same. Experiments have 

 shown that not only do sands and grav- 

 els possess porosity, but rocks presum- 

 ably solid and compact may be traversed 

 by water. Even so hard a rock as gran- 

 ite, selected for the sarcophagus of the 

 tomb of General Grant on account of its 

 great strength, shows a porosity of o. 23 



