56 DATE GROWING 



"Theory and practice show that fruits grown 

 from seed under ordinary conditions do not come true, 

 because of the cross pollination that has taken place, 

 usually during the course of many generations. For 

 this reason, date seeds selected indiscriminately, 

 even though they be from fruit of one variety, can 

 not be expected to reproduce the characteristics of 

 the female parent. 



"Theory and practice also show, however, that 

 it is possible to breed a pure variety of any fruit, so 

 that it will perpetuate itself by seeds and each genera- 

 tion will be fairly true to type. This has been done 

 in the case of the Reine Claude prune, in the case of 

 Algerian oranges, in various grapes and elsewhere. 

 It is not a work that can be accomplished quickly, 

 and in the cases mentioned the process of purifying 

 the strain has been going on for years, perhaps 

 centuries. 



"The same process can be applied to dates. If a 

 male of known origin is selected, and then a female 

 of the same variety pollinated with this, the process 

 being repeated in each generation, the foreign char- 

 acteristics will finally be bred out, and the race will be 

 nearly true from seed, although there will still remain 

 the commercial disadvantage that half of the seedlings 

 will always be males. 



"When such a pure race has been produced, the 

 production of seedling dates will have great possibili- 

 ties from a practical viewpoint. At present, however, 

 with seeds taken from ordinary dates of known 

 variety but unknown pedigree, satisfactory commercial 

 results can not be expected." 



