Blooming and Bearing of the Date. 319 
The seeds may be sown in open seed-bed, if slightly protected 
by cloth or lath frame, and the plants reset in nursery row to be 
placec in permanent position after attaining more size. They 
transplant well if a ball of earth is taken up with the roots. If 
grown in boxes, which is, perhaps, preferable, because more 
easily watered and cared for, they may be afterwards potted for 
a time, but the plant should not remain long in the pot because 
of the circular growth soon assumed by the roots. Large date 
plants can be readily transplanted by removing the outer leaves 
and taking as large a ball of earth as can be handled. 
Rooting Suckers.—Suckers taken off in warm weather and 
watered freely usually take root readily. Care should be taken 
not to let the plants dry. Professor Toumy, in the Arizona Bul- 
letin already cited, says a sharp two-inch chisel and a mallet are 
good tools to use in removing suckers. The leaf stalks should 
be cut away, exposing the bulb of the sucker, care being taken 
not to injure the bulb in removing. One should cut in rather 
deeply at either side, not being afraid of injuring the old plant, 
cutting out a V-shaped portion extending from the base of the 
bulb downward for a foot or more, and being careful to secure 
in uninjured condition all the attached roots. Mr. J. W. Mills, 
foreman of the Pomona substation in California, has the best 
success in removing suckers by banking earth about the stem of 
the plant so as to cover the bulbs, a number of weeks prior to 
removing them. A good system of roots is established by this 
method. In growing plants from suckers one gets fruit much 
sooner than from seedlings. 
Bearing Age of the Date—There is, however, much differ- 
ence in the ages at which the seedlings have come in fruit in the 
hands of different growers. Fruit has been reported on seed- 
lings six years old and even on plants four years from the seed. 
Such early maturity must not, however, be generally expected. 
Blooming of the Date. —The date palm is dioecious, and, its 
staminate (male) and pistillate (female) blooms appearing on 
different trees, it requires the association of the two for perfect 
fruiting. Growing plants from seed leaves the grower in doubt 
as to the sex of his plants until they bloom. Usually one ob- 
tains a large preponderance of male plants. In propagating 
from suckers the new tree is of the same sex as the parent. It 
is advised to have about one male to twenty female trees. The 
pollen can be transported long distances and maintains its vital- 
ity for a long time. 
Artificial fertilization of the bloom of the bearing palm has 
been found of advantage in this State, and was probably first 
practised by J. R. Wolfskill. Though the staminate tree was 
but a few feet awav from the pistillate, the male bloom was 
broken in pieces and hung to the leaves of the female tree near 
