INTRODUCTION OF SAHARAN YAKIKTIKS. 41 



compared and that there may ho time to secure a supply of offshoots 

 before the "rush" lupins and whole regions are planted to date-. 



Fortunately it will doubtless be possible to secure the Khars for the 

 cooler arid regions and the Deglet Noor for the hottest deserts in anv 

 desired numbers when once the demand for the offshoots exisN. 



INTRODUCTION OF SAHAKAN VARIETIES OF DATE PALMS INTO THE 



UNITED STATES. 



Seedling dates have long been growing in California and Arizona, 

 and still longer in Mexico, but only recently have successful importa- 

 tions been made of offshoots of date palms, by which alone the varie- 

 ties can be propagated. In 1889 the Division of Pomology of the 

 Department of Agriculture imported some 59 offshoots from Egypt, 

 9 from Algeria, and 6 from Maskat, and, although many were lost, 

 those sent to the Arizona Experiment Garden in Phoenix, in the Salt 

 River Valley, grew well and fruited at an early age. (See Yearbook, 

 1900, PL LXII, fig. 1.) It was, however, found that most of the off- 

 shoots from Eg} f pt had been falsely named; many bearing the names 

 of valued sorts proved to be ordinary males of no value. Some few 

 female palms bearing fruit of fair quality were included in the ship 

 ment, however, and the success of these proved the Arizona climate 

 and soil to be suited to the culture of at least the Egyptian sorts. 

 Prof. James W. Tourney first directed attention to the success of the 

 date palm in central Arizona, as evidenced by the production of an 

 abundance of f ully matured dates, both by the seedlings planted by 

 American settlers and by offshoots imported by the Department of 

 Agriculture/' It was the success of these early importations which 

 rendered it desirable and feasible to undertake the recent large impor- 

 tations of offshoots made in 1899-1900. 



Shortly after the organization of the Section of Seed and Plant Intro- 

 duction in the Department of Agriculture in July, 1898, attention was 

 directed to the desirability of securing a large assortment of correctly 

 named offshoots, particularly from the Algerian Sahara, whence are 

 exported the best dates which reach Europe and America. The Uni- 

 versity of Arizona and the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station 

 meanwhile offered to provide a special date garden, and to set out, 

 irrigate, and cultivate the palms, if the Department of Agriculture 

 would furnish a collection of offshoots of the best sorts of dates grown 

 in the Old World. This offer was accepted, and in the winter and 

 early spring of 1899 the writer visited, under instructions from the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, the oases in the Sahara Desert about Biskra, 

 Algeria. A few offshoots were secured and forwarded as a trial 



Toumey, J. W. The Date Palm. Bui. No. 29, Arizona KxprriiiH-nt Station, 

 Tucson, Ariz., June, 1898, pp. 50, figs. 13. 



