SUMMARY. 141 



SUMMARY. 



The date palm can endure any degree of heat and any amount of 

 dry ness in the air, and is even favored by hot winds and by a rainless 

 summer. The best sorts can mature only in regions having a very 

 long and very hot growing season. 



/ It can endure more alkali in the soil than any other profitable crop 

 plant and can thrive on soils containing from 0.5 to 1 per cent of 

 alkali, even when irrigated with brackish water containing 0.43 per 

 cent (430 parts per 100,000) or more of injurious alkali. It can with- 

 stand without injury accumulations of alkali at the surface of the soil 

 that would kill all other crop plants, even those considered to be very 

 resistant to alkali. 



>< The choicest date that reaches America and Europe, the famous 

 Deglet Noor of the Algerian and Tunisian Sahara, is very sweet, of 

 exquisite flavor, and is adapted to serve as a dessert fruit; it sells for 

 more than Smyrna figs, being the most expensive dried fruit on our 

 markets. The demand for these dates during the holidays is never- 

 theless greater than the supply, and if they could be sold somewhat 

 cheaper the consumption of this fruit would be enormous. 

 v^The Salton Basin or Colorado Desert, in southeastern California, 

 recently put under irrigation, has a hotter and drier summer climate 

 than the Algerian and Tunisian Sahara, where the best grades of 

 Deglet Noor dates are grown, and is, indeed, better adapted to the cul- 

 ture of this fruit, since not only is the climate more favorable but the 

 soils are richer and the irrigation water is of better quality. 

 ^The date palm will prove of equal value on the more alkaline areas 

 of other arid regions in the Southwestern States where the winters are 

 warm enough to permit it to grow. Most regions do not have suffi- 

 cient summer heat to mature the Deglet Noor date, and other sorts 

 which ripen earlier must be planted. 



vV It is very probable that the culture of the best second-class dates, 

 suitable for employment in confectionery and for household uses, will 

 prove a profitable industry in the Salt River Valley, Arizona, and it is 

 possible that the Deglet Noor variety may mature there. 



Even the growing of ordinary sorts, such as the oriental dates, 

 which are imported into this country in enormous quantities, may pay 

 in some favored regions, such as the flood-plain of the Colorado River 

 in Arizona and California, where exuberantly fertile lands can be had 

 cheaply, and where the annual overflow and seepage from the river 

 render artificial irrigation unnecessary. 



\ Although date palms are likely to be grown first on soils too alka- 

 line for other crops, the culture of the finer sorts promises to be a most 

 profitable fruit industry that would warrant planting on the very best 

 lands and the employment of the most modern horticultural methods. 



