110 THE DATE PALM. 



a few excellent." Personally I should have been surprised if the 

 plantation had not been in a state very like this, and there is 

 no doubt in my mind that all the trees with worthless fruits 

 were seedlings, and that most of those that gave good and excellent 

 results were from off-shoots. I think that if the author of the 

 statement referred to had had a proper record of the history 

 of each tree, he would have found this to be so, and that if he had 

 looked carefully into the matter, all trees from off-shoots of the 

 same variety were producing fruits of the same quality. A good 

 clear record of this sort would have settled the doubts raised by the 

 people as to whether imported trees from Basra would bear a 

 good quality of fruits here. No such record seemed to exist, 

 however, and we were left with a lesson on the importance of 

 keeping accurate and minute records of such experiments. All 

 information to my hand seemed to indicate that excellent fruits 

 could be got in the Punjab from trees grown from off-shoots 

 of trees that gave excellent fruits in Basra, but I recognised 

 that people would only be absolutely convinced on this point 

 when they could actually pluck fruits from known Arabian 

 trees grown in the Punjab. 



A number of Arabian trees were therefore imported in 1910 

 and planted in Multan and Muzaffargarh. These have already 

 borne fruits and this question has now been very satisfactorily 

 settled (see para. 85, page 113). 



82. If any cultivator wishes early satisfaction regarding the 

 quality of the fruits that a particular variety of 



How to discover . 



early whether a date palm will produce in his particular condi- 



variety of date palm 



is suited to a parti- tions oi soil and climate, what months it will 



cular locality. . '* r -i i i i i i 



ripen its iruits in, etc., he shouJd procure and 

 plant on his land a few young date trees of that variety which 

 have just become old enough to bear fruits. If he will treat 

 them well as regards water, etc., they will probably yield fruits in 

 their second year after planting. As will be seen from para. 84, 

 page 111, we got fruits from a few strong Arabian suckers in the 

 second year after planting, but this result is much more likely to 

 be got if young trees which have just begun to bear fruits are 



