Pomona College Journal op Economic Botany. 



347 



which the dates have received their only tillage. In the spring of 1912, 

 the palms were pruned severely and burned with a gasoline torch, to kill 

 the scale. After this harsh treatment, one seven-year-old palm, that already 

 had eight cff-shocts, produced ten bunches of fruit. Some pahiis did ntt 

 bear at all. 



Thrifty fruiting palms are also to be found on the mesa near Yuma. 

 These have had little care but the water necessary to keep them growing. 

 One nine-year palm produced, in 1911, 210 pounds of fruit that sold for 

 10c per pound, f. o. b. Yuma. 



The date industry seems to be a coming thing for these valleys, and 

 while the results .so far obtained are largely problematic, there seems to 

 be no reason why the future shall not witness great commercial success of 

 date culture. The seedlings are uncertain as to sex, quality of fruit and age 

 of bearing, but by proper selection and propagation from off-shoots, stand- 

 ard varieties can soon be produced in abundance. Scale is under control, 

 and the climatic conditions are proved. Time will do the rest. 



FIGS 



One grower has had black figs on the market by the first week in May, 

 and was the only shipper on the market in America, for three weeks. He 

 has also shipped figs for the month preceding Christmas. Pie sold his first 

 hex, in May, for .^2.00 a pound. The next went at $7 a l)ox. Then prices grad- 

 ually dropped to $5, $4, and $3, one box going for $2.50. The second crop 

 ranged from $2 to 50c a box. The last crop is profitable at 50e a box, but 

 cannot be made to pay at less. The express and couunission charges on a 

 50c box are 12c, after the fruit has been grown, picked, packed, and deliv- 

 .ered to the station. In this especial locality, cuttings planted in the open 

 ground, have been known to produce figs within eighteen months from the 

 time of planting. 



Figs do equally as well lower in the Coaehella Valley, although especially 

 favored localities, such as the above-mentioned, produce fruit .slightly earlier 

 than others. Around Mecca are to be found many figs, hearing abundantly 

 and growing on soils of varying composition. 



In the Imperial the crop is generally two to four weeks later, although 

 the quality is e(iually as good. One grower .shipped black figs during the 

 first week in June. Another claims to have produced Smyrnas in May, by 

 the aid of the wasp from the new capri, and says that three crops a year will 

 thus be possible. 



The Yuma figs ripen about the same time as those in the Coaehella. and 

 are equally as productive and sweet. 



The fig seems second only to the date as a commercial fruit for tlie.se 

 warm valleys, and produces fruit of such quality and at such an early sea- 

 son that it has no outside competition. Refrigeration of fresh figs, for 



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