84 DATEGROWING 



windbreak, they may be sown in the proper line, 

 five or six feet apart, and left there permanently, for 

 there will be no need of removing the males in this 

 case. 



The percentage of males varies around one-half. 

 James P. Read, of Mecca, found that sixty per cent of 

 his Deglet Niir seedlings were males. The Majhul 

 seeds have given a surprisingly high percentage of 

 females, but as the number reported on so far has 

 not been large, this may be merely a coincidence 

 which further plantings will destroy. The grower 

 must, in general, expect that something less than half 

 of his palms will be females. 



The grower will naturally wish to save a certain 

 number of male palms for his own use; if they are 

 seedlings, he should have five or six to each hundred 

 females. The easiest and surest way to insure an 

 abundance of pollen is to plant a windbreak, as 

 described, and let all the males in it grow; in the 

 number there is certain to be one or more that will 

 give satisfaction. If the planter wishes to save only 

 a few males, he should select such as seem to flower 

 most profusely; but he can never be certain of good 

 results, for seedling males are no more reliable than 

 seedling females, and I am confident that most of 

 the males in use in the future, in an intelligent date 

 growing community, will be propagated by offshoots 

 from a father of known value. 



Having satisfactorily disposed of his surplus 

 males, the seedling grower will then consider his 

 females, and will probably plant them all in orchard 

 form at first, leaving the elimination of worthless 

 ones until they bear enough fruit to give a fair test 

 of their character. This is the more desirable 



