B. P. I. 73. V. P. P. I. 106. 



THE DATE PALM AND ITS UTILIZATION IN THE SOUTH- 

 WESTERN STATES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The purpose of this bulletin is to call attention to the peculiar 

 suitability of the date palm for cultivation in the hottest and most arid 

 regions in the Southwestern States and to its remarkable ability 

 to withstand large amounts of alkali in the soil. The most intense 

 heat, the most excessive dry ness of the air, the absence of all rain- 

 fall for months at a time during the growing season, and even the 

 hot, dry winds that blow in desert regions are not drawbacks, as in 

 almost all other cultures, but positive advantages to the date palm, 

 enabling it to mature fruit of the highest excellence. 



The growing of the best sorts of dates where the climate is favora- 

 ble promises to be more profitable than any other fruit culture pos- 

 sible in such regions, and this industry would long ago have been 

 carried on extensively had the climatic and soil requirements of this 

 plant been better known, and had there not been general ignorance as 

 to the methods of propagation, as well as a lack of the best sorts to 

 propagate. 



The date palm has the unusual power of resisting large amounts of 

 alkali, the most dangerous foe to agriculture in the arid regions, both 

 in the soil and in the irrigating water. This will permit it to be grown 

 profitably on lands so salty as to prevent the culture of any other pay- 

 ing crop, and thereby render feasible the reclamation of hundreds of 

 square miles of the most fertile lands in the Southwest which, at great 

 expense, have been put under irrigation. 



Thanks to the hearty cooperation of Prof. Milton Whitne} r , Chief 

 of the Bureau of Soils, it has been possible to investigate thoroughly 

 the ability of the date palm to withstand alkali in the soil. Samples 

 of soils were selected by the writer in date plantations in the oases in 

 several different regions in the Sahara Desert (see map, PI. II, p. 76) 

 with especial reference to a determination of the effect of alkali on the 

 growth and f ruitf ulness of the date palm. Analyses of these soil sam- 

 ples, made by Mr. Atherton Seidell, were placed at the disposition of 

 the writer by Professor Whitney, and have rendered it possible to 



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