Babylonian Dates for California 



PAUL B. POPENOE 

 EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL OP HEREDITY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The greatest date-growing region in the world is the country between 

 Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, which is now properly called 'Iraq and is 

 a part of Turkey in Asia, but which I shall call by its ancient name of 

 Babylonia, as more familiar to Occidentals. Its dates, which we have been 

 accustomed inaccurately to call "Persian Gulf dates," have long held a 

 practical monopoly of the American market; but when the culture of the 

 palm began to be taken up seriously by California ranchers, they drew nearly 

 all their stock from Algeria, because of the greater accessibility of the North 

 African oases. 



IMost of the varieties thus secured, however, are late in maturing, and 

 when they became well established, it was realized that an extension of 

 the season, by the addition of earlier varieties, would be of great value to 

 the industry here. Late dates like Deglet Nur do not get into market until 

 the fresh importations from Babylonia have arrived, and they must compete 

 with a flood of fruit which can be laid down in the United States for less 

 than five cents a pound. If, however, California growers can market a 

 considerable portion of their crop in August and September, they will have 

 a market empty of dates, when any good fruit will find a ready sale at a 

 remunerative figure. 



It was known in a general way that the Babylonian varieties would meet 

 this need. The Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture had introduced a number of them on an experimental scale, 

 following a visit of David Fairchild to the region in 1903, and among the 

 varieties thus secured were several that ripened earlier than anything there- 

 tofore known in the United States. In fact, Arizona growers did not hesitate 

 to say that the "Persian Gulf" varieties would practically be the making of 

 the industry in their state,* since the best from Algeria matured at a time 

 at which the crop was usually ruined by rain. 



Under these circumstances, the West India Gardens, of Altadena, Los 

 Angeles County, California, sent me to the region in question, to spend the 

 winter of 1912-1913, make as full a study of the date varieties as possible, 

 and introduce the best of them to the United States on a large scale. I began 

 with a visit to the home of the Fardh date in Oman,t on the eastern coast 

 of Arabia, and then spent nearly four months in Busreh, near the head of 

 the Persian gulf, and Baghdad, 500 miles farther north. In this region I 

 was able to list 112 varieties of dates, descriptions of most of which, including 



• Popenoe, Paul B., in Bui. Calif. Comm. Hort., I, 10, p. 877. The Arizonans have 

 since come to prefer Egyptian dates. 



t Popenoe, Paul B., in Bui. Calif. Comm. Hort., Jan., 1914. 



