July l, 1901.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
5 
HABITAT. 
The habitat of the date is North Africa, Arabia, 
Persia, Egypt, Nubia, Syria, aud it does not go 
further east than the mouth of the Indus. It is 
indigenous in the Canary Isles ; wanting m the south 
of Senegal, and it no longer appears in the Oasis 
of Darfur, between the 13th degree aud 15ch degree 
of latitude. The zone in which it grows well in 
general is that between 35 degrees aud 19 degre^es 
north. According to Link (Die Qrwelt., I., p. 317;, 
it flowers freely in the south of Europe, as in Sicily, 
the i^orea, ana the south of Spain ; and also bears 
fruit there, though this is not sweet. In Sicily it 
still grows at 1,700 feet— namely, at Aderno and 
Trecastagne on Etna, but it probably does not bear 
fruit on this island fPhilippi on Vegetation of Etna, 
' Linnaaa," vol. 7, p. 731). It needs 5,lU0 degrees 
Fahr. of heat accumulated during eight months for 
the date to ripen its fruit perfectly. If the sum 
of the heat be less, the fruits set but do not 
grow to their full dimensions ; they also remain 
bitter to the taste, aud lack much of the sugar 
and albumen, to which they owe their nutritive 
properties. The requisite conditions are realised 
m the Sahara. The mean temperature of the year 
there averages from 08 degrees to 76 degrees, 
according to the locality. The heat commences in 
April, aud does not cease till October. Keith 
Johnston's ' Physical Atlas ' gives the temperature 
in summer and winter as — July, 81 degrees to 86 
degrees ; January, 52 degrees to 61 degrees ; mean 
temperature (annual), (58 degrees to 76 degrees. 
Biskra, the celebrated date-growing district in North 
Africa, is in latitude 81 degrees 51 minutes, altitude 
410 feet: it faces towards the hot tropical south, 
and is protected by mountains on the north side. 
It has an annual mean temperature of 68'5 degrees 
(January 50'2 degrees, July 898 degrees). The 
thermometer seldom sinks in the cold season more 
than 2 degrees below freezing point, aud the date 
can endure 6 degrees of frost. 
The neighbourhood of the sea is unfavourable to 
the production of good dates. The general altitude 
of the central districts of North Afnc , where it 
thrives, is 600 feet to 2,000 feet ; the date palm also 
grews in some Egyptian oases from sea-level to 
600 feet. The lower portions of the Rivers Euphrates 
and Tigris in Turkey are from sea-level to 6u0 feet. 
The amount of annual rainfall requisite for the 
best dates is from 5 inches to 10 incnes ; for those 
of inferior qualities, from 10 inches to 25 inches. 
Mr. A. S. White, secretary the Royal Geographical 
Society of Scotland, gives, in his work, the 'Deve- 
lopment of Africa,' 1890, a map of the rainfalls in 
North Atrici, Arabia, and Persia, which may be 
profitably referred to in this connection. Although 
the date requites a hot, dry climate, yet its roots 
must have access to moisture. Aud though it is 
essentially a tree belonging to desert regions, yet 
it is confined to the oases in these deserts where 
water is found. It flourishes in rainless countries, 
but only where there is moisture in the soil, either 
naturally or produced by irrigation. 
IRRIGATION AND OASES. 
The "Oases of the Tableland,' writes Charles 
Martins, in his ' Du Spitzbcrg au Sahara,' 'are 
each watered by a stream or copious spring, and 
are but a short distance from the Meaiterraneau 
region. The oases of Kl Kantara is the first (Mangin ) 
we met on leaving the IMediterraneau region to 
penetrate to the Sahara through a ravine called 
the ' Jklouth of the Desert.' It is 1,800 feet above 
sea-level, and its temperature just suffices to enable 
the dates to ripen. The oases of the Valleys of 
Erosion are watered by natural er artesian wells. 
An example is Ouargla, situated in a profound 
hollow. The palms are planted at the rate of 1,U00 
to 1,100 a hectare ('2j acres). Outside the gardens 
grow some wild date palms, which yield a smaller 
crop, but whose fruit is much more savoury. The 
oases of the Sandy Desert need water. The trees 
are here planted in conical cavities hollowed by 
the hand of mango, that their roots may strike down 
to the subterranean reservoir which is to nourish 
them. These cavities are IS feet, '25 feet, or 30 feet 
deep. The slopes around these hollow gardens are 
stayed indifferently well by a matting of palm-leaves. 
The wells are in the centre, aud not aeeper than 
25 feet. These oases have a very precarious existence, 
as a gust of Wind may bury them under au 
avalanche of sand. Eveiy oasis is composed, in 
the main, of palms which seem to form a coutinuoua 
forest ; but lu reality they are planted in rows aud 
in gardens separated from one another by walls of 
earth, which are pierced with au aperture to admit 
of tne entrance ot ihe irrigating nil into the enclosed 
square. The soil employed in the construction of 
the walls is removed from the paths, which are 
consequently below the surtace, ana can be employed 
for a double purpose : they facilitate circulation in 
the oasis, and the waters, after having refreshed 
the gardens, discharge themselves into these hollow 
ways. 
SOIL" 
Meyen, in his ' Geography of Plants,' page 2> 
states that a sanJy soil suits the date best ; and 
Sonnini, in his ' Travels in Egypt,' saw it growing 
in the sands as well as in the more fertile parts. 
It will luxuriate even in saltish soil, and the water 
for its irrigation may be slightly brackish. The 
artesian water of the Oued ti.ir district ui Algeria 
contains from 0-57 ok. to 1-07 oz. of dry salt in 
a gallon. Brigade-snrgeon Bouavia says that on 
the whole it thrives best in sandy, giauitic, schistic, 
and calcareous soils. The notheru half of Arabia, 
which is an important centre for date culture, is 
granitic. 
INFLORESCEN'CE. 
The date ii a diceoious tree, having the male 
flowers on one plant and the female or fruiting 
ones on another. The male flowers are considerably 
larger than the female, furnished with stamens only, 
and form a cloted-up, folded, grape-like ball (previous 
to the ripening of the pollen) lu an envelope called 
the spathe. ' It blossoms,' says Mr. Tristram, in 
his book 'The Great Sahara," 'in the mouth of 
March. The male flower is borne on a very short 
calyx, a thin petalons corolla much larger, with sis 
stamens, turnished with long linear anthers, the two 
cells of ivhioh open tnemselves from within by two 
longitudinal slits. ihe temaie fluweis piesent a 
double floral envelope, each whuri ut which is formed 
of three pieces, coubiituting three distinct pistils 
each surmounted by a stigma iu the lorm of a hook. 
Of these three pistils one only develups itself,, ripens, 
and becomes au elongated ovoiu berry, with a 
slight epidermis ot a yellowibh-reu, a solid 
aud slightly viscous pulp, aud an endocarp 
represented by a slight pellicle enveloping the 
nucleus, which is the seed. The seed ie grooved 
and on the opposite side of it is a depression contain-^ 
iug the germ." Barou -Mueller states that one male 
tree is considered sufficient for fifty females. Watts 
allows one or two males to from eighty to two hundred 
trees. 
PUOPAeATION. 
The best trees are produced from suckers from 
three to four years old, having au average weight of 
about 6 lb. Those raised tiom seed are much slower 
in maturing, and are generally p . or. The sucker is 
taken from the foot of the stein uf an adult tree: 
when first planted it must be watered daily for six 
weeks, and on alternate da.ys for another six weeks, 
after which the tiees are watered once a week in 
summer, aud every mouth in winter. The nut does 
not commence to germinate until trom six to twelve 
months after planting h.ive elapsed, and grows very 
slowly for the first two years. The trees yield fruit 
iu from five to six years, aud are in full bearing at 
from twenty to twenty-five years, alter which they 
