48 DATE GROWING 



grower of today does not want to work solely for 

 posterity. Such work is properly a side issue with 

 private growers, or a field for state or governmental 

 experimentation . 



The commercial grower who plants seeds on the 

 theory that he will get a new and improved strain 

 is merely starting where the Arabs did a thousand 

 years ago. There are already many good varieties of 

 dates in the world. The man who grows palms by 

 taking offshoots from these is capitalizing the expe- 

 rience of centuries. Instead of working for the 

 future, he is letting the past work for him. 



An examination of various plantations of seed- 

 lings in the United States gives no indication that 

 these can produce dates to compete with the choice 

 product of offshoots from palms of world-famous 

 varieties. The best that advocates of the com- 

 mercial planting of seedlings claim is that 10% 

 or 15% of the trees may be good and note that the 

 claim is, good, not good and uniform. Seedlings, 

 indeed, offer an excellent opportunity for the rancher 

 to grow dates for his own use. If he plants them as a 

 windbreak, or as a hedge around his field, his expense 

 will be little, the land occupied will be of small value, 

 and he will have plenty of dates which are good to eat. 



But the dates from ten palms may all be good, 

 considered separately, and yet if they differ each one 

 from the other, they can not be graded and sold at 

 the top market price, no matter how good they may be. 



That is the situation which faces the man who 

 plants seedlings for commercial purposes. He must 

 expect to confine himself to the lower priced trade; 

 and it is not from this trade, but from the fancy trade, 

 that large profits are to be made. This fancy, profit- 



