THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS CONVENTION. 



175 



sufficient number of early male flowers. Flowering begins in February, 

 iind while, in theory, last year s pollen should be used in such eases 

 the practical keeping of it in potent condition seems to have failed in 

 measure with all of these cultivators. 



The tying of a little sprig from a male tiower into the whisk broom- 

 like head of a female tiower. as it bursts the sheath, looks like a simple 

 process, and is; but on the intelligent doing of this at just the right 

 time and in just the right way depends the entire date crop, and in 

 districts on about the border line of date growing territory, late frosts, 

 old rains, or sweeping winds may considerably^ interfere with success. 



Where failure has resulted the flowers may drop off early, leaving 

 the nearly naked strings of the spike to tell the stor}^; but in other 

 cases they may hold on and the fruit grow, three dates to the tiower 

 instead of but one. sometimes reaching large size and a beautiful 

 appearance. l)ut lacking the seed and power to ripen. I have seen 

 more than a hundred pounds of fruit of this character upon a single 

 tree. In twelve or fourteen weeks after pollination has been accom- 

 plished one of the three ovules of the tiower will start into vigorous 

 growth, while the other two will fall beliind. later on sometimes appear- 

 ing as scales at the base of their successful rival. I have but once seen 

 two perfect seeded dates ripened from the same tiower. 



Pollination successfully accomplished, the grower's troubles are not 

 yet over. With young trees, whose fruiting stalks are produced near 

 the ground, the weight of the rapidly developing fruit, a bunch some- 

 times weighing from 30 to 40 pounds, soon bends them over, and they 

 must be propped up. As a precaution against birds, squirrels, rats, 

 and sometimes the neighbor's boys, not to say the neighbor himself, the 

 bunches are sometimes enclosed in stout screen wire bags, but some 

 predatory "animaT' occasionally cuts the stalk and carries away bunch 

 and bag. perhaps the only bunch of that variety yet fruited. It is 

 seldom that the entire crop is menaced, as occurred at Tempe in the fall 

 of 1906. when hordes of migratory rats invaded the plantation, and it 

 was only by great efforts and after the killing of hundreds of them 

 that a portion of the crop was saved. 



The presence of a dangerous and destructive scale, the Parlatoria 

 hlcihchardi, on most of the oft'shoots imported from the north of Africa 

 necessitates thorough fumigation on their arrival in this country. In 

 spite of all precautions this scale has been introduced both at Tempe 

 and Mecca, probably in the deep crevices beneath the leaf bases, and 

 while thorough cyanide fumigations have kept it well in check, it seems 

 likely that the gasoline flame treatment devised by Professor Forbes 

 will be necessary for its complete extermination. Fortunately, it 

 spreads but slowly and seems to have no other host.* 



The labor of the date orchard is pretty well distributed throughout 

 the seasons. There is no portion of it dependent upon a heavy force 

 of outside labor brought on for a particular period, though the gather- 

 ing and packing will be the most busy time, and the hopeful cultivator 



*Another genus of scale, tlie PhoFnicorcus nw.riatti, commonly known as the 



Marlatt scale, has been present upon date ti ^ - ^ ' PhcBnix and Heber, but as 



it was confined to iIi-t- ■Ki^es of th<^ lea-'es. do little damage. Recently, 



however. Mr. Chim-inrd. L\t Heber. has found li numbers upon the bases of 



fruit stalks of his Deglet Noor trees as to st : ^ i nterfere with the full develop- 

 ment of the fruit. 



