58 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The greatest obstacle in the way of 
Date culture in Florida has been the 
heavy rainfall and frequent dews during 
the maturing season of the fruit. The 
annual rainfall at Key West is hardly 
more than half of that at points on the 
southern mainland and there is said to 
be an almost total absence of dew 
throughout the period when the date is 
ripening. This opens possibilities for the 
fruit which may lead to the founding of 
an important industry. 
A great many thousands of dollars 
have been spent in exploring the Date¬ 
growing countries of the Orient and in 
importing into the United States the off¬ 
shoots of the finest varieties which are 
grown in those regions. These varieties 
are now grown commercially in the 
Coachella Valley and a few other sections 
of the West and the extension of the 
plantings is said to be limited almost 
wholly by the supply of offshoots avail¬ 
able. These offshoots which provide the 
only certain means of growing the palms 
true to name, sell readily at from $10.00 
to $20.00 each. During the past season 
the California Date growers have been 
able to market their first-grade fruit, 
after proper preparation, at from $1.00 
to $1.50 per pound. When one consid¬ 
ers that a full bearing Date Palm will 
carry an average of 100 pounds of fruit 
and that the processes of preparing this 
fruit for market are not more expensive 
than those required for most other simi¬ 
lar products, some of the possibilities of 
this industry become apparent. Among 
the keys adjacent to Key West, there are 
thousands of acres of land which is too 
low in elevation above tide water to per¬ 
mit the growing of any other fruit trees 
but upon which the Date Palm will thrive, 
for the Date does not object to somewhat 
salty soil conditions. The growers of 
Dates in California, to realize the best 
prices for their product must get it to our 
Eastern markets in advance of the best 
Dates from the Orient and this fact is ap¬ 
parently going to bar the commercial 
growing of some of the best varieties in 
that State. One fact brought oilt by the 
recent investigations by the Bureau of 
Plant Industry has been that the time of 
blooming of the Date Palms on Key West 
Island is nearly two months earlier than 
in California, with probably abcut the 
same difference applying to the season of 
maturity. The advantage of this would 
be very great to the Florida Date grower. 
Unfortunately when the Date offdioots 
were brought into this country from Asia 
and Africa a serious scale was introduced, 
which has never been eradicated. If the 
industry is ever to amount to anything h 
Florida it would be a great mistake to 
burden it with this pest to begin with ano 
it is therefore not advisable to bring into 
the State, even for experimental pur¬ 
poses, offshoots of the fine varieties 
which might otherwise be obtained from 
California. This will make any possible 
development in this State, slower of real¬ 
ization than would otherwise be the case, 
but the initial steps have already been 
taken and future results will be awaited 
with great interest. 
Here, there and anywhere within our 
boundaries may be found men and women 
working with such fruits as the Litchee, 
the Papaya, the Anonas, the Guavas, the 
Carissa, the Jujube and a host of other 
