68 DATE GROWING 



years. In any event, it is a great mistake to let a 

 palm bear fruit too early. 



Offshoots are frequently found which have small 

 offshoots upon them, and there is no reason for 

 detaching these and destroying them, unless one cares 

 solely for fruit. In the United States, the production 

 of offshoots from the best varieties promises to be 

 fully as remunerative in the immediate future, as 

 the production of fruit. It is not possible to get a 

 maximum production of both from the same palm, 

 but most growers will doubtless prefer to keep the 

 fruit yield to a reasonable limit by cutting off surplus 

 blossoms, in order that they may secure as many 

 offshoots as possible. Offshoots may yield a few 

 offshoots, in their turn, at three or foiu- years from 

 planting, and at from five to fifteen or twenty years of 

 age they should yield at least two a year, although 

 varieties differ in offshoot production. From an 

 eight year old Birket al Hajjl palm at Tempe, Ariz., 

 fifty-three were taken at one cutting. 



The Arabs long ago discovered that if all the 

 offshoots were taken from a palm it would produce 

 no more, and this fact has been confirmed in the 

 United States. It is necessary, then, to leave one or 

 more offshoots on the tree at all times, so that it may 

 continue to produce, and if this is done, and ample 

 irrigation and fertilization given, the palm may 

 continue to produce offshoots much longer than is 

 supposed — even to the age of thirty or forty years. 

 In a damp climate it seems to yield more. On the 

 coast of Southern California, where fruit does not 

 mature, the palm yields offshoots much more abun- 

 dantly than it does in the hot interior valleys, but this 

 is doubtless due, in part at least, to the very fact that 



