CHAPTER III 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 

 It was shown in the last chapter that the palm 

 may be grown experimentally in many places where 

 it cannot be grown profitably; and that in many 

 regions it may sometime be grown with profit, al- 

 though there is not yet suflicient proof to warrant 

 anyone making an investment at present. This is a 

 vital point to one who intends to take up the culture 

 with the purpose of deriving profit from it, and he 

 can not afford to confuse successful culture with 

 profitable commercial culture. There is a wide 

 difference between them, which I will try to show 

 in some detail; not only does it exist in respect to 

 the physical conditions under which the palm may 

 be grown, but also in the means by which it is repro- 

 duced. The question is, how shall the palm be propa- 

 gated to give not only good results, but good results 

 from a commercial point of view, the point of view of a 

 man who is more interested in cash returns than in 

 advancing the cause of pure science? 



A slight consideration of the case, or experience 

 with any other kind of agriculture, will show that it is 

 important to produce good fruit, but it is equally 

 important to produce fruit that is uniformly good, 

 for profitable marketing depends on having a large 

 enough quantity of fruit that is uniform, to permit it 

 to be graded, and sold as graded fruit of a standard 

 pack. The grower who packed half a dozen kinds 

 of apples, or oranges, in the same box would get little 

 more than a cull price for the box, even though each 



