DATE-GROWING. 109 



to its being a very much easier method of propagation than by 

 giving to off-shoots the large amount of water and attention 

 required to pull them through the precarious period of the first 

 two years after planting. It is probably also due in part to the 

 cultivator being ignorant of the facts that off-shoots give fruits 

 of the same quality as the parent, while seedlings may form either 

 male or female trees, and that nearly all the female seedlings 

 give inferior fruits (see para. 27, page 66 ). I believe that in 

 most cases trees simply arise from seeds dropped from neighbouring 

 trees ; by people passing along, etc., and that as a rule the 

 propagation of date trees gets no attention whatever. 



81. When I began my enquiries into the possibility of 

 The question improvement of date culture in the Punjab 



whether Arabian , nr . n i i -i , 



trees imported into m 1909 and suggested to date-growers that 

 bear Sphere a?a suckers of good varieties should be imported 



those 1 oTthJ 3 from Basra, they expressed serious doubts as to 

 whether the trees to be imported would bear 

 the same character of fruits here that they do in Basra. It 

 was pointed out to them that some fairly good dates are 

 already grown in the Punjab and that no evidence to hand 

 either from the Punjab or from other parts of the world 

 indicated that the quality of the fruits produced here from 

 Arabian trees would be as inferior as from the trees at present 

 grown. Dr. Bonavia's work was also appealed to. At page 29 

 of his book " The Date Palm in India," he says : " In the 

 Horticultural Gardens at Lucknow there are 252 seedlings 

 from imported seeds from 13 to 16 years old and one hundred 

 and twelve palms from imported off -sets from 12 to 13 years 

 old. Both the lots are fruiting. There are many varieties, 

 and the fruit of the best of them has been differently styled 

 good, very good, and delicious." At page 41 of the same book the 

 following statement is recorded as being an excerpt from a report 

 on these dates by Mr. Reid, the Superintendent of the Lucknow 

 Garden : " One peculiarity of the date trees in the garden is 

 that no two trees give precisely the same kind of fruit. Some are 

 apparently worthless varieties, others indifferent, some good and 



