30 BULLETIN 1457, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE 
Table 2. — Mean temperatures of the growing-season months, April to October, 
for six proved stations for -the Saidy date compared with six other localities 
representing prospect ire territoi y 
Stations and localities 
Mean temperature (°F.) 
Proved r-. 
stations Maxi- 
mum 
mJS A ™ 
Dakhla Oasis ' 1 99.68 
Cooperative Date Garden, Mecca, Calif '• 2 96.67 
Calexico, Calif ! 96.94 
Heluan, Egypt i 3 ! 90.26 
Bard, Calif, (near Yuma, Ariz.) , 4 96.46 
Parker, Ariz 97.00 
Needles, Calif » 94.40 
Buckeye, Ariz 96.70 
Sacaton, Ariz ; 96.04 
Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Phoenix | 5 | 95.43 
Mesa, Ariz ! 95.83 
Cooperative Date Garden, Tempe, Ariz j 6 96.26 
67.0 
83.34 
65.2 
80.93 
64.2 
80.57 
65.5 
77.88 
59.8 
78.13 
60.4 
78.70 
65.7 
80.05 
60.4 
78.56 
61.3 
78.67 
60.3 
77.86 
61.1 
78.46 
78.08 
SATELLITE SEEDLINGS 
The term "satellite" is proposed for the seedlings of a variety 
which so nearly resemble the parent variety that they are grown 
and marketed with it under the common name. The existence of 
such seedlings was first discovered in Egypt, but they probably occur 
in many other date-growing regions. 
Where the color is close to the type, a seedling may differ rather 
widely from the parent in size and season of ripening without at- 
tracting the attention of growers not familiar with its accurate de- 
scription. A notable case of this is the small-fruited type of Hayany 
described on page 20. 
Some date varieties seem to have a much stronger tendency to 
come true from seed than others, and the Hayany has this trait the 
most highly developed of any variety known to the writer. The 
common Egyptian practice of selecting males from the seedlings 
of a variety would tend to enhance this trait, especially in a variety 
so long in cultivation. 
It is a rather common occurrence for seedlings to spring up at 
the base of the tree, and care is required in order to distinguish them 
from true offshoots when the latter are dug up for transplanting. In 
this way a good many seedlings might slip in, in good faith, sup- 
posed to belong to the true variety. This may explain the Dongola 
opinion of the high value of trunk offshoots, precluding the possi- 
bility of being mistaken for a seedling. 
The wide variation in the dates sold as " Ibrimi," dry dates 
brought down the river from Upper Egypt and the Sudan, would 
warrant the suspicion that the original Barakawi, or " Sukkoti,' 5 
has produced seedlings, more or less true to type, till the name 
* c Ibrimi " has become scarcely more than a trade name. 
The large size and fine flavor of the dates of Nubia and Sukkot 
mentioned by Burckhardt, Wilkinson, Fischer, and other early 
writers suggest a great need for the study of individual trees for 
the selection of propagating stock. 17 
17 The identification by Bruce Drummond. for many years in charge of the Government 
date gardens ar liulio and Mecca, Calif., of three apparently distinct strains of the 
Deglet Noor ; the occurrence of the James Read Deglet Noor seedling at Thermal, a 
variety with characters determined by the writer to be within the range of technical 
variation of the Deglet Noor variety ; as well as the existence of several " false Deglet 
Noor " trees, distinct from one another, in the Coachella Valley of California, all point 
to the possession in a moderate degree of this satellite tendency in the seedlings of this 
world-famous variety. 
