12 THE DATE PALM. 



determine with some degree of accuracy the alkali resistance of this 

 remarkable plant, which important point in its life history is here 

 considered in detail for the first time. 



One of the principal reasons for publishing this bulletin is the com- 

 pletion of a system of canals which will irrigate a considerable portion 

 of the Salton Basin, a or Colorado Desert, in southeastern California, 

 from the Colorado Eiver, some 60 miles away. Water was first 

 brought in, after great expense had been incurred and no inconsider- 

 able engineering difficulties overcome, in June, 1891, and since then 

 the development of the new country has been very rapid. Before the 

 end of the year 1891 some 125,000 acres of this land had been taken 

 up. This desert lies mostly below sea level and is characterized by 

 having the hottest and driest climate known in North America. 



As soon as water was put on it was evident that some of the land 

 was alkaline, and researches made by the Bureau of Soils of the 

 Department of Agriculture 6 have shown that over half the lands now 

 irrigable are too salty to permit the culture of any but alkali-resistant 

 plants. Probably one-fourth of these lands will not support perma- 

 nently any other profitable crop than the date palm. Now, it happens 

 that the climate of this desert is better adapted than that of any other 

 region in North America for the culture of the best sorts of dates and 

 is even better than that of the northern part of the Sahara Desert, 

 whence are exported the choicest dates that now reach the markets of 

 Europe and America. The advantages of this region over any others 

 in the United States or Mexico for the growing of the best late varie- 

 ties of dates, such as the Deglet Noor, are so great as to give it almost 

 a natural monopoly of the production of these dates, the most expen- 

 sive dried fruit on our markets. 



In the United States the term "desert" is applied only to unirrigated or unculti- 

 vated arid regions, and as fast as such areas are reclaimed and put to profitable cul- 

 ture by means of irrigation they cease to be called deserts and receive some other 

 name. The appellation ' ' desert " is a hindrance to real-estate transactions and is 

 felt to be unjust and opprobrious by those who live in the midst of flourishing fruit 

 orchards and alfalfa fields. Doubtless the same change of name will take place in 

 case of the Colorado Desert, and indeed the misleading term " Colorado delta" has 

 already been applied to the newly irrigated lands about Imperial and Calexico. The 

 true delta of the Colorado Eiver lies to the southward, where this stream enters 

 the Gulf of California. The region in question might very appropriately be called 

 the Salton Basin, inasmuch as it is a true basin, an area surrounded on all sides by 

 mountains or higher lands and depressed far below sea level in the center, where 

 its most prominent topographical feature, Salton Lake or Salton Sink, is located. 

 Throughout this bulletin Salton Basin is used instead of Colorado Desert to desig- 

 nate the lower parts of the lands sloping toward Salton Lake, a region limited on 

 the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, on the west by the San Jacinto Moun- 

 tains, and extending southward into Mexico to the line beyond which the delta lands 

 slope toward the Gulf of California. 



6 Means, Thos. H., and Holmes, J. Garnett. Soil Survey around Imperial, Cal. 

 Circular No. 9, Bureau of Soils, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1901. 



