COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 49 



able trade will be open solely to the grower whose 

 dates are uniform — and that means the grower who 

 plants offshoots. 



There is one particular way in which seedlings 

 can be of value to the commercial grower, although 

 not in the form of immediate cash returns — that is, 

 as a school of experience. If he has a quantity of 

 seedling dates he can experiment as much as he likes 

 in transplanting, cutting offshoots, striving to increase 

 or decrease the production of offshoots, handling the 

 pollen, and in many other fields where there is still 

 much to be learned; and he can do this without feeling 

 that he is losing money by injuring a profitable crop. 

 Furthermore, he will be certain to have an abundance 

 of pollen whenever he wants it. And if among his 

 seedlings there is one of exceptional merit he can 

 proceed to the propagation of this by offshoots, with 

 the idea of eventually getting enough of this one 

 variety to make a profitable planting; or he can sell 

 the offshoots in areas which are now under quarantine 

 against the scale diseases, because seedling palms 

 and their offshoots are usually free from disease if 

 they are reasonably protected from infection. From 

 his seedlings, too, he will have plenty of fruit for his 

 home use, since for that purpose it makes no difference 

 whether it is uniform or not, as long as it is eatable. 

 No one, therefore, can afford to neglect seedling dates, 

 any more than he can afford to depend on them; but 

 as Swingle says.f "Any proposal to grow seedUng 

 dates alone on a commercial scale as a source of profit 

 is, to say the least, premature." 



It is not necessary to insist on the practical dis- 



fSwingle, W. T. The Present Status of Date Culture in the 

 Southwestern States. U. S. Dept. of Agr., B.P.I., Circular No. 129, 

 p. 6. Washington, June 7, 1913. 



