CARE TO BE GIVEN TREES. 25 



Male date palms generally have stouter trunks and more leafy 

 crowns than female trees (see PL V, fig. 2), arid some have said that 

 even the young plants could be distinguished a matter of much im- 

 portance where dates are propagated from seed, when it is desirable 

 to recognize and destroy as soon as possible the superfluous male 

 plants. It has not been found possible to depend on any of the signs 

 given for distinguishing young male plants, and they can be recognized 

 with certainty only when they are in flower. An inspection of figure 

 3 on Plate VII will show how different the male flowers are from the 

 female and render it easy to determine the sex of the palms as soon 

 as they show flowers. 



CARE TO BE GIVEN DATE PALMS. 



The chief care required by date palms is that they be irrigated as 

 often as needful. The soil should be kept in a proper state of tilth, 

 which is usually done by growing some crop between the rows, espe- 

 cially when the palms are young. The leaves are trimmed off as they 

 die, and care is taken not to allow too many offshoots to grow at the 

 base of the stem, for they draw on the strength of the parent plant. 

 In general not more than three or four offshoots should be allowed to 

 grow at once. At least one should always be left attached to the 

 mother plant to be used to replace it in case of accident. a 



Old palms, ten to fifteen years after planting, which have developed 

 a good trunk 4 to 10 feet high, do not produce offshoots, and such trees 

 require no attention other than the cutting away of the dead leaves, 

 the pollination of the flowers, and the gathering of the fruit. 



THE AGE AT WHICH DATE PALMS BEGIN BEARING. 



The age at which palms come into bearing depends much upon the 

 climate and soil; where planted in rich soil, watered abundantly, and 

 where the summer heat is intense and long continued, the date may 

 begin to fruit when very young. Trees have been known to bear in 

 Arizona within four years after the seed was planted; however, such 

 palms are too small to bear more than a very few fruits, and seedling 

 trees are generally considered not to yield paying quantities of fruit 

 until they are at least 6 or 8 years old (see Yearbook, 1900, PL LVII, 

 fig. 1). When date culture is practiced scientifically, practically no 

 seedlings are grown, but instead orchards are started by planting 

 fairly large offshoots, which soon strike root, and which often bear 



Many valuable seedling dates have been lost in this country because the suckers 

 were kept closely trimmed off until the trees were in bearing. Only then was their 

 value discovered after it was too late to propagate them. If an offshoot is always 

 left attached at the base of the palm it may in turn be allowed to produce suckers 

 after the parent plant ceases to produce them, and in this way a continuous supply 

 of offshoots may be produced even at the base of old palms, and no variety need be 

 lost. 



