August, 1911 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



19 



produce and perfect its fruit. During 

 all the time from the season of blooming 

 in April and May until the fruit is fully 

 ripe in October to December there should 

 be a mean daily temperature ranging 

 about 65 degrees Fahrenheit to 100 degrees 

 Fahrenheit and upward. And the tem- 

 perature of the water applied to the roots 

 should be warm, and the warmer the 

 better, up to that of the air, which it 

 rarely attains. In southern Arizona and 

 in California near the mouth of the Colo- 

 rado River these very conditions exist 

 and the rivers furnish abundant water 

 for irrigation. 



The soil that best suits the date is a 

 rich, sandy loam, and it is a notable fact 

 that the land where 

 the proper tempera- mskji 

 tures exist in the 

 Salton Basin and 

 Salt River and Gila 

 Valleys is of this 

 character. This is 

 also true of the 

 oases of Northern 

 Africa, where date 

 trees are the princi- 

 pal growth and 

 means of living. 

 There is one most 

 fortunate fact in 

 connection with date 

 culture, and a most 

 remarkable one as 

 well, relative to the 

 soil; that a consid- 

 erable proportion of 

 alkali is not injuri- 

 ous. Indeed it 

 would seem to be 

 in some measure 

 rather beneficial to 

 growth. For this 

 reason there are 

 thousands of acres 

 of otherwise infer- 

 tile or unsuitable 

 land in the regions 

 already mentioned 

 in both hemispheres 



that may be devoted to date culture with 

 great profit. This is done extensively 

 in the Orient and is being started in 

 our own western country. Our govern- 

 ment and the states of Arizona and Cali- 

 fornia are jointly interested in planting 

 date orchards at several points in the 

 Salt River and Gila valleys and in the 

 Salton Basin. 



Following up the first experiments at 

 importing and planting in test gardens 

 the plants of named varieties of supe- 

 rior excellence there have been procured 

 and planted in the regions named thou- 

 sands of plants and of nearly all the 

 choice varieties known. Explorers were 

 sent to the Sahara, to Arabia and to 

 Persia to personally attend to the selection, 

 packing and transporting of these plants 

 and with most satisfactory results. There 

 are to-day in the date gardens of Arizona 

 and California the largest collections of 



choice varieties of the date in all the world. 

 Some of them are fruiting and it was my 

 privilege last fall to visit these gardens, 

 see the fruit on the trees and taste it fresh 

 from the bending clusters. 



The date is a dioecious tree, that is, 

 having its pistillate and staminate flowers 

 on separate trees. The fruit bearing 

 trees are planted very much in excess. 

 The proportion is usually about one to 

 forty or fifty. The winds would naturally 

 carry the pollen were the trees allowed 

 to come up as the seedlings would pro- 

 portion them, but as with animals under 

 domestication, the hand of man inter- 

 venes. The Arabs, Moors and Bedouins 

 have long understood the best methods of 



the first ten to twenty years of the life 

 of a date tree there are many of these 

 offshoots formed and they may be taken 

 off by means of a long sharp knife, and if 

 planted out in good soil and watered 

 they will usually take root and grow. 

 Thus the choice bearing trees are propa- 

 gated and the male trees as well. 



The varieties most prized come from 

 Arabia and the oases of the Sahara and 

 principally from Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, 

 and Morocco. Nearly all that are worthy 

 of note have already been secured by our 

 government experts. Among these choice 

 varieties the Deglet Noir is one of the 

 best. The fruit is large, amber in color, 

 soft and of honied sweetness. It has 

 been traced back for 



1 



Fruiting date palm in a California garden 



artificially pollinating the date. They 

 take a cluster of the pollen bearing flowers 

 (which somewhat resembles the tassel 

 of our corn), and climbing into the 

 other trees tie fast a sprig to each cluster 

 of flowers. This serves to fertilize the 

 whole cluster. This is likewise done by 

 our American date growers and with 

 eminent success. 



The planting of seedling date trees is 

 about as uncertain in resulting varieties 

 as with other fruits, only more so, inasmuch 

 as about half of them are sure to be stam- 

 inate. There are many varieties and they 

 vary in style and vigor of tree and in the 

 fruit they bear large and small, slender and 

 almost round, dark and light in color, 

 soft and hard and of varying richness 

 and flavor. The trees are, therefore, prop- 

 agated by taking off shoots or suckers 

 from the base of the trees that are desired 

 to be perpetuated and increased. During 



fully three hundred 

 years to the Oases 

 of Temassin in 

 Southern Tunis and 

 may antedate this 

 knowledge. Plants 

 of it were imported 

 by me from Biskra 

 in Algeria in 1889, 

 and they are now 

 bearing luscious 

 dates and many 

 more have been 

 obtained since. The 

 Menakher is an- 

 other very large 

 and choice variety. 

 Hamraya is another 

 very large, dark red 

 date from Tunis and 

 the tree is a heavy 

 bearer. The Khalas 

 and Fard are two 

 famous varieties 

 from Persia and off- 

 shoots of them have 

 been imported. Over 

 one hundred of the 

 best kinds in all the 

 world are growing 

 in the gardens near 

 Phoenix and Tempe 

 in Arizona and those 

 and Imperial in the 

 Salton Basin of California. Tons of fruit 

 is now being sold and given away from 

 these trees and the industry of American 

 date culture has really passed the experi- 

 mental stage. Seedlings from the Men- 

 akher, Hamraya, Deglet Noir and other 

 choice varieties are being tested. 



Sweet rocket, or dame's violet (Hesperis 

 matronalis) , always wants to own a border, 

 where, after all, only the white variety is 

 particularly desirable, and that in only a 

 limited quantity. If the grounds are large 

 enough, remove some of it to a place where 

 it can run wild. Even the deeper of the 

 two pink shades takes on beauty in this 

 way. On Long Island there is a dooryard 

 of an unoccupied house where the long 

 grass is full of sweet rocket, and it has 

 strayed through the fence and across the 

 sidewalk. — B. S. 



near Idio, Mecca, 



