14 THE DATE PALM. 



caravan routes which run in every direction through the deserts in 

 Africa and Arabia. The exportation of dates to Europe and to America 

 is an important industry both in North Africa and in the countries 

 bordering the Persian Gulf. 



The value of the dates imported into the United States alone 

 averaged for the ten years ended June 30, 1900, $402,762 per annum, 

 as appraised at the exporting point, but the real value when received 

 at the American port was doubtless 50 per cent greater, or $600,000 a 

 year. This value is now exceeded only by the imports of two other 

 dried fruits Zante currants, $916,908 in 1900, and Smyrna figs, 

 $513,895, in 1900. Inasmuch as California has been producing large 

 quantities of second-class dried figs for some years, and since 1900 

 also Smyrna figs of the best quality, a it is likely that in the near 

 future the value of the imports of figs will fall below that of dates, 

 which will then rank second in value among imports of dried fruits. 



The date palm, as its name indicates, belongs to the great family of 

 palms. Like the majority of its relatives, it has but a single bud at 

 the top of the trunk, and if this bud be destroyed the tree usually 

 dies. The date palm, however, unlike the cocoanut palm and unlike 

 the majority of palms, produces offshoots, or " suckers," at the base 

 of the stem (see PI. XVII, fig. 2, and Yearbook, 1900, PL LIX, fig. 

 4), & at least during the first decade of its existence. Old date palms 

 which are in full bearing do not produce such offshoots, and if the 

 terminal bud be destroyed the whole plant will die. since offshoots 

 are very seldom, if ever, produced at the top of the trunk. The date 

 palm, like most other members of this family, has a trunk which 

 remains of the same diameter, no matter how old it may be, there 



This gratifying result was brought about by the introduction of the fig insect 

 (Blastophaga), which the writer accomplished in the spring of 1899 by sending from 

 Algeria the winter galls of the male fig tree containing these insects. The Blastophaga 

 fertilizes the flowers of the Smyrna type of figs, which, unlike ordinary figs, do not 

 set fruit unless pollinated. The large orchard of Smyrna figs at Fresno, Cal. , belong- 

 ing to Mr. George C. Eoeding, which had produced but a few dozen figs pollinated by 

 hand during the twenty years it had been planted, began to yield abundant crops as 

 a result of the introduction of this beneficent insect, and in 1901 produced some 

 70 tons of dried figs. The success of this orchard has led to a renewed interest in 

 fig culture, and several other large plantations have been set out near Fresno, while 

 many orchards of inferior varieties are being grafted to the Smyrna fig. 



& Throughout this bulletin references have been made to plates published by the 

 writer in his paper, "The date palm and its culture," in the Yearbook of the 

 Department of Agriculture for 1900, pp. 453-490, Pis. LIV-LXII. This publication 

 is accessible in all libraries, and it has been arranged to send a reprint of the paper 

 with the present bulletin to all applicants in the Southwest who live in regions where 

 date culture is feasible. This will render it possible for all interested to refer to the 

 plates in this previous paper. In order to shorten the references to these plates 

 they are cited as "Yearbook, 1900," with the number of the plate. Inasmuch as the 

 plates of this Yearbook article were numbered from LIV to LXII and those of the 

 present bulletin are numbered from I to XXII, confusion is impossible. 



