86 THE DATE PALM. 



(vide page 7, para. 4) prevent it wilting and drooping at once as a 

 turnip or cabbage leaf does when water is scarce. We have seen 

 cases where the short supply of water took place in July and the 

 plants only began to show very obvicus signs of dying off in 

 October and later in the year. If the off-shoots are planted in 

 the first week of September and the plantation receives careful 

 attention, nearly all the weakly plants will have died out and 

 many of the others will have produced several well grown leaves 



bv that time next vear. If careful attention is not given some 



./ > 



of the plants will not have established themselves till three or 

 four years after planting. Pioper attention as regards water, etc., 

 is well repaid by a young date plantation as strong vigorous trees 

 come several years sooner into bearing than weakly ones. 



52. In most parts of the world the death-rate in a young 

 Death-rate in a plantation is usually between 20 and 30 per 

 young plantation. cent> T k e res ults of the past five years' experi- 

 ments in the Punjab show us that the death-rate could be 

 kept well within these figures by planting fair sized plants on 

 average quality of soil in early September and by giving them 

 the attention prescribed. Forty-three trees out of fifty planted 

 at Lyallpur in September 1910 are now (1916) flourishing 

 vigorously and some have borne three crops of fruits. Ihe 

 Executive Engineer, Lower Sutlej Canals Division, informs me 

 that 42 out of 50 suckers sent to him in 1911 are alive and 

 that some are giving fruits. In other places also where proper 

 attention has been given very low death-rates have been got. In 

 many cases, however, the death-rate has been far higher than 

 it should have been, and in some cases it has practically amounted 

 to total extinction. Shortage of irrigation water, for reasons 

 beyond control, and a want of knowledge of the value of 

 mulching were in some cases the causes of the high death-rate, 

 but failure to realise the absolute necessity of preventing the soil 

 in the plantation from drying up further than prescribed above, 

 even once until the plants become established, was the great 

 stumbling-block. This is not surprising, as most people here 

 have never reared date palms from suckers but have seen from 



