44 DATEGROWING 



of the apples or oranges might, individually, be of 

 first class quality; but if his box is solid Winesaps, 

 or Washington Navels, he will get the highest market 

 price. The same thing is true, and always will be 

 true, of dates, and the grower who is going into the 

 culture commercially must keep this fact before his 

 eyes at every stage of his operations. 



Now, good dates can be grown from seed. All 

 the choice varieties in existence have probably origi- 

 nated in that way, and then been propagated slowly 

 by offshoots. Often seedling dates are inferior but 

 occasionally they are very superior, and anyone who 

 broadly condemns seedling dates as worthless is merely 

 inviting ridicule. Nevertheless, it is not possible to 

 attain the highest degree of success in commercial 

 growing of dates if one depends entirely on seedlings, 

 because no matter how good their fruit may be, it 

 can never be uniform, and that is a necessary factor 

 in meeting the demands of the high-priced trade. 



Dates are produced commercially from seedling 

 palms in three countries — Mexico, Spain, and India. 

 In all the rest of the world, including all regions 

 which have any appreciable influence on the world's 

 commerce in dates, commercial production is solely 

 by means of offshoots. An examination of conditions 

 in various countries, then, should form a reliable 

 guide for American planters. 



"Everywhere in Mexico," says W. T. Swingle,* 

 "date culture is carried on in the most primitive 

 manner, seedlings being everywhere grown, and the 

 propagation of superior varieties by offshoots nearly 

 or quite unknown." He concludes that as far as 

 Americans are concerned, "even the growers of 



*InBul. B.P.I. No. 53, p. 135. 



