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Failure in connection with the profitable cultivation of the date 
palm is often due to the fact that some imagine that the tree is one 
fitted for any hot, arid desert. Its likings have, however, been fit- 
tingly summed up by an Arab proverb: “The date palm, the queen 
of trees, must have her feet in running water and her head in the 
burning sky.” . 
It is a fact worth noting that a very dry atmosphere favours 
the production of dates of high quality, and that the best dates are 
grown in the hottest regions of Sahara, and remote from the cooling 
and humid neighbourhood of the sea. In fact, heavy rain, followed 
up by a few days of cloudy weather at the period of the ripening of 
the fruit, at times spoil the date crop. 
Permanency of moisture is needed more than any great volume 
of water at any time. When this is available, even if the water is 
alkaline, the hot winds of the desert do not injure it, and it will 
thrive in a climate too hot for any other known fruit. 
Suckers of good strengths and weighing 20lbs. to 30lbs. are 
preferable, if sent a long journey. Large shipments have of late 
years been sent from Northern Sahara by Mr. W. T. Swingle, Agri- 
cultural Explorer to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
from Biskra and the oasis around a distance of 400 miles to the 
south of Algiers, to Arizona and California. These consignments 
consisted of suckers removed from the parent palms by means of a 
sharp chisel and a mallet. They were simply packed in the date palm 
fibre bags and slung on pack camels, slipped three in a bag, and diz- 
ected to the nearest railway line, whence they were carried to Al- 
giers, dipped in water, and packed in wooden boxes, after having 
been wrapped in moist moss or sphagmum, and shipped as ordinary 
cargo. This methcd of packing proved vastly cheaper than the 
shipment in tubs which had been followed by the French and British 
Governments in shipping Algerian palms to South Australia. The 
suckers were at times a long time growing, and some, after plant- 
ing, remained for 12 months dormant; but 93 per cent. eventually 
grew. Date palm trees raised from seeds are six to eight years before 
they bear, whereas from suckers they begin to fruit when five or six 
years old, and come into full bearing when 10 or 12 years old, and 
continue bearing from this stage, if well cared for, until they are 
100 years or more old. The average quantity of fruit borne an- 
nually amounts to 100lbs. to 200Ibs.; some trees yielding ag much as 
400lbs or even more. 
Although the Arabs plant the date palms without any system, 
the French colonists find it preferable to plant them in rows 25 
to 30 feet apart; the wider the better. 
The flowers of the date palm are white, and are carried on an 
inflorescence not unlike the tail of a horse. If the flowers have 
been pollinated, two of the three fruit produced from each flower 
