THE DATE PALM. 



multiply it to a number of trees fit to produce a considerable 

 consignment of fruits for the market, as that variety will then 

 have to be propagated from suckers got from the original 

 improved seedling tree. 



30. Off-shoots should be selected when fruits are ripe 



and hanging on the mother trees, as at that 



BdSt oft y s e h a oots. time there can be no doubt about the quality 



of the fruits that the off-shoot will bear. The 



trees from which off-shoots are required, should then be marked 



with paint or in any other convenient way, and their positions 



recorded in a note-book, a rough plan of the positions being made 



if necessary. To help identification the approximate height 



of the parent tree, the number of off-shoots at its base, the 



approximate size of the off-shoots, their age, etc., should all be 



noted. 



31. It is essential that a sucker before being removed 



from a tree, should have its leaves trimmed 

 suckeS^nl detach- back as in illustration No. 26, page 80a. Practi- 

 tr j. cally nothing but the tender young unopened 



leaves in the central bud and parts of the bare 

 stalks of the old leaves necessary to protect the bud should be 

 kept on the plant. Water is transpired from plants through the 

 medium of the leaves (see page 7, para. 4), and the object 

 in this severe pruning is to prevent as far as possible the drying 

 up of the off-shoots through loss of water between the time 

 when it is severed from the parent plant and that when, after 

 being replanted, it has developed a root system of its own able 

 to supply sufficient water to replace the amount transpired by 

 a more full leaf system. 



If a large number of leaves are left on the off-shoot after it 

 has been severed from the parent plant, drying up before 

 replanting will obviously be accelerated. Even after replanting 

 the off-shoot, a large leaf system on it is fatal, as such off-shoots 

 usually have few or no roots ; it takes the plant some time to 

 develop a vigorous root system, and if the amount of water 



