THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 37 



time you increase the water supply you increase the 

 crop, and increase equally the strength of the palm 

 itself. The palm flourishes under such conditions, and 

 its strength and vigor will be so much increased that 

 ten palms grown under such conditions will be worth 

 one hundred grown in the ordinary manner." 



Opposing this we find some surprising facts. At 

 Madina, which to an Arab is the world's headquarters 

 of scientific date growing, many of the palms are 

 never irrigated, but depend on the insignificant rain- 

 fall for whatever moisture they may receive, and the 

 accurate Burckhardtf assures us "the fruit of the 

 latter, although less abundant, is more esteemed." 

 In Egypt some of the best dates are said to be grown 

 without irrigation, particularly the varieties Amhat 

 and Samani. One grove in Coachella Valley produced 

 well last year, although irrigated only six times. 



Such facts have led many to suppose that the 

 palm might give good results with a small amount of 

 water. We have not yet sufficient data to decide on 

 this point, but one should be very cautious in trying 

 to grow dates by dry farming. All of the above cases 

 may be explained by supposing that the roots of the 

 palms reach ground water, in which case they would 

 of course require no surface irrigation. The Tempe 

 garden has not been irrigated for seven years, because 

 of the high level of ground water. The largest planta- 

 tion at Baghdad — that of Kathim Pasha, with 20,000 

 palms — had not been irrigated for a year, when I 

 saw it, and yet it produced a good crop of fruit ; but 

 investigation showed that it was located in what had 

 formerly been the bed of the Tigris River, and although 



fBurckhardt, John Lewis. Travels in Arabia, vol II, p. 21 1 ff . 

 London, 1829. 



