INTRODUCTION. 13 



There exists, therefore, tin unusuai combination of circumstances, in 

 that the opportunity for introducing a most profitable new industry 

 into this region coincides with the pressing needs of a new country 

 for some crop which can withstand alkali. 



The resistance of the date palm to alkali is so much greater than that 

 of other crop plants that it will be indispensable for the more alkaline 

 areas through the Southwest wherever the climate is hot and dry enough 

 to permit even the less valuable early sorts to mature. Already date 

 palms are being planted on alkali lands in the Salt River Valley, 

 Arizona, and as a result of the demonstration of the feasibility of 

 growing them the price of such land has more than quadrupled within 

 the last five years. Doubtless within a decade date culture will be 

 much extended in Arizona, and it probably will become the most 

 important fruit industry in the Salton Basin in California. 



It becomes a matter of great importance to show what the climatic 

 requirements of the date palm are and to determine how much alkali 

 it can withstand, as well as to indicate how date palms are propagated 

 and how their culture is carried on. This exposition is especially 

 necessary in case of this plant, as its needs as to climate and soil arc 

 unlike those of any other plant commonly grown, and the methods 

 followed in its propagation and culture are widely different from those 

 employed for other crop plants. 



It is believed that these data, here presented in detail, a will serve to 

 facilitate the establishment and the extension of a new industry in this 

 country. 



WHAT IS THE DATE PALM? 



The date palm was one of the first plants to be cultivated, and has 

 been grown for at least four thousand years along the Euphrates and 

 Tigris rivers. It has been for ages and is still the most important 

 food plant of the great deserts of the Old World, and many regions in 

 Arabia and in the Sahara would not be habitable were it not for this 

 tree. Not only does it yield a delicious fruit of great food value, but it 

 also furnishes in many regions the only timber suitable for use in the 

 construction of houses and for making a thousand and one necessary- 

 objects. Its leaves furnish a partial shade, under which it is possible 

 to cultivate other fruit trees which could not exist were they exposed 

 to the direct rays of the sun and the burning winds in the desert; 

 thousands of fig, almond, pomegranate, and peach trees and grape- 

 vines, forming veritable orchards, are cultivated in the palm- covered 

 oases, especially in the northern Sahara. For centuries the transporta- 

 tion of dates has been the chief motive for the formation of the great 



Many of the facts here presented were summarized by the writer in a previous 

 article, entitled "The date palm and its culture," Yearbook of the Department of 

 Agriculture, 1900, pp. 453-490; also reprinted. 



