DISEASES AND PESTS 155 



ment is to cut down one of the trees; its sap flows out 

 and ferments, attracting all the borers in the neighbor- 

 hood, who drink themselves to death. But this is 

 hardly a satisfactory treatment in a date palm 

 plantation. 



Locusts or grasshoppers sometimes visit a palm 

 grove with" destructive effects. It is reported* that 

 when they appeared at Tulare, California, in 1891, 

 they left adjoining fields of grain and a variety of 

 other tender plants to feed upon the leaves of the 

 palm. In Algeria the natives have an idea that they 

 prefer the leaves of seedlings to those of the standard 

 varieties which are propagated by offshoots. With 

 the development of modern methods of fighting them, 

 there is little to fear from them as a menace to the 

 date industry in the United States. 



Rats sometimes destroy part of the crop, of 

 which they seem to be particularly fond. A horde 

 of migratory rats which visited the date orchard at 

 Tempe, Arizona, a few years ago, caused great 

 damage. At Baghdad a squirrel-like rodent, has the 

 same habit, and the growers protect a choice tree from 

 him by putting a collar of tin a foot wide around it, at 

 a height of three feet from the ground. This would 

 probably be an effective treatment here, and would 

 be a permanent protection. 



Gophers are one of the most troublesome pests 

 in some regions, and seem particularly fond of off- 

 shoots. Poison, traps, and gopher guns can all be 

 used. In other districts jackrabbits are to be feared, 

 and if one lives near them he should, if possible, 

 surround young offshoots with a rabbit -tight fence. 



*Shinn, C. H. "The African Date Palm," in Rep. Agr. Exp. 

 Sta., Univ. CaL, 1891-2, p. 144. 



