42 



THE DATE PALM. 



shipment, and a large number was contracted for, to be delivered the 

 following spring. 



In May and June, 1900, the writer again went to Algeria for the 

 purpose of shipping to Arizona the date offshoots previously con- 

 tracted for and to purchase such additional offshoots of good sorts as 

 could be had. As a result of this second visit 440 offshoots, consisting 

 of some 27 varieties, were obtained and shipped (see PI. VI) to the 

 Cooperative Date Garden at Tempe, Ariz., where 381 of the offshoots 

 were planted (see fig. 6 and Pis. XXI and XXII). Of the remainder 

 21 were sent to Phoenix, Ariz., and 35 to the date gardens at the sub- 

 stations of the California Experiment Station at Pomona and Tulare 

 and to private growers in California. 



PIG. 6. Cooperative Date Garden at Tempe, Ariz. The offshoots imported from the Algerian Sahara 

 in 1900 have just been set out and a workman is planting one in the foreground. From negative by 

 Prof. R. H. Forbes, August, 1900. 



This shipment, which was the largest that ever left North Africa, 

 came through in two months and arrived in good order. An innova- 

 tion was made in packing the offshoots. It had been the custom to send 

 them rooted in tubs, entailing the great expense of a year or two of 

 care in a nursery to get the plants properly rooted, and then heavy 

 freight charges on account of the bulk and perishable nature of the 

 plants. The writer shipped the offshoots packed simply in boxes 

 with damp moss about the bases, a in charcoal, or in straw, with no 

 moisture whatever (see p. 21). A late report of Prof. R. H. Forbes, 

 director of the Arizona Experiment Station, who gave his close 



a For fuller details see the writer's report, " The date palm and its culture," in 

 Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1900. 



