44 THE DATE PALM. 



olive is about the only other fruit tree which is able to stand without 

 injury the fierce heat, intense light, and the driving sand storms of 

 the Sahara, and even the olive itself grows better and yields more 

 fruit if planted under the protecting shelter of the date palm. Most 

 other fruit trees, such as the apricot, peach, almond, pomegranate, fig, 

 and jujube, can be grown successfully in the Sahara only in the shade 

 of other trees, and do best where grown under the date palm. In the 

 northernmost oases of the Sahara the dates are frequently of inferior 

 quality, whereas the other fruit trees do better here than in the hotter 

 and drier regions farther south. Many of these northern oases have 

 veritable orchards growing under the half shade furnished by the 

 crown of slender leaves of the date palms far above. This is well 

 shown in Plate XII, which represents a fig orchard growing under date 

 palms at Chetma, Algeria. It sometimes happens that vegetables are 

 grown under the fruit trees, in which case it is possible to see three 

 crops occupying the soil first, the date palm, towering far above; 

 then the fruit trees, and under them the more delicate and shade-loving 

 garden vegetables. It is not at all impossible that in some parts of our 

 own Southwest the date palm may prove very useful in the manner 

 above described, serving as a shelter and partial shade to more delicate 

 fruit trees which thrive perfectly in regions where the summers are 

 far too cool to allow of the culture of the best sorts of dates. 



IRRIGATION OF THE DATE PALM. 

 AMOUNT OF WATER NECESSARY FOR A DATE PALM. 



The date palm requires a continuous supply of moisture about the 

 roots and can not maintain itself in as dry a soil as can some desert 

 plants. Much experience has been accumulated by the French planters 

 in the Algerian Sahara as to the amount of water necessaiy to enable 

 a date palm to grow and fruit well. M. Jus, the celebrated civil engi- 

 neer, who has done so much to reclaim the northern Sahara by a study 

 of its artesian water supply, considers a that each palm tree requires 

 one-third of a liter (0.35 quart) per minute at the flowing well or main 

 irrigating canal, and palms which receive from 0.4 to 0.5 of a liter 

 (0.42 to 0.53 quart) per minute are more vigorous and yield more fruit 

 even if crops are grown underneath. If each tree receives 0.35 quart 

 per minute this would amount to 126 gallons per day, or about 17 

 cubic feet. At 1 pint per minute the daily consumption would be 180 

 gallons, or a little more than 24 cubic feet. These data are not for 

 the amount of water actually furnished the trees, but for the amount 

 which must be allowed for each tree at the head of the principal irri- 

 gating canals. Of course some of the water is lost by evaporation 

 and seepage before it reaches the palms. 



a Jus, H. Les oasis de POued Rir', Paris (Challamel), 1884. 



