New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-26
TWO NOBLE STR1NGERS.

Among the plans which our late sanguine
Commissioner of Agriculture elaborated for in
creasing our resources were the Introduction of
the date palm into the Southern States and the
| encouragement of fg-culture which hitherto
has been so small as to amount to but little, in
summing up general National profits. Our
readers remember, perhaps, the story of the
ARAB VINO visited England, and returning home
was SURROUNDED by an anxious crowd ipquirinr
what KIND OF land the conquering English
owned. He dilated on the enormous wealth.
| the manufactures, the miraculous railway. tcle
graph, etc, while his hearers listened, awed and
dislnayed. But my brethren" he said. ain
all the country there is not n single date palm.
"Not one. The land is accursed.D Their faces
bcamed again. "Allah is Allah,r tLey said.
"and Arabia is the country of his love. for me
hath given it the tree which is clothes food
and drink
commissioner lie Due proposed to add this
'reasure-house OF the Arab to our already over
STOCKED 1000 market. Ills department has lust
issueu u speclal report concerning the method of
It's cultivation. The tree grows about eighty feet
nigh, and lives for about 200 years, producinv
III each crops of the delicious fruit The Arabs
make out of its leaves and fibres their heds
bags, clothes, ropes, brushes and houses: ont of
the stalks are made baskets, brooms. chairs
ETC., while the fruit furnishes food and. when
fermented, stimulating drink The voung
leaves are eaten boiled out of the seeds arc
made oil, coffee, and food for cattle. Successful
attempts have already been made to raise This
tree in st. Augustine and Key West in
Florida, and on a plantation near New Orleans
Each tree when vigorous yields from fifteen to
twenty punches, each bunch weighing about
twenty pounds, which at the present yaIuc
would bring $32 from each tree. This would
be "a falr interest on the investment of n little
|, time and trouble; especially if the crop were
to continue for 200 years.
The fact is to be considered, however. bcfore
all our Southern planters turn their rice and
cotton fields into waving palm groves. that wa
are well-fed people already. The date can
never become here the favorite article of food
wearing apparel and universal stock of stonia
goods which 1t Is in the desert We can And
elsewhere better food, better clothes. better
wood ana hquor than it brings to the moor
Arap' III therefore never can become the nrof
ltapie article OF commerce which this report in
ouces the reader to hope. As dainty, n snecies
Oh fancy stock, 1t may yield fair profit 70 the
cuitVator. The culture of the fig is n mora
promising field. 1t is grown successfully in al
the Southern States from South Carolina dow,
Little trouble is required in propagating Il IN
the care and drying of the fruit, etc. In the ro-
port accurate directions are furnished by our
consuls at Messina, Smyrna, Beirut and Cali
While the Department is thus emnlovoa
with praiseworthy assiduity in opening M new
resources in the way of food, why does il NOT
now and then call attention to the enormous
waste In that which nature has given us. esne-
cially In the case of the chestnuts From Inner
pennsylvania to Lower Georgia, at this time
the whole vaot sweep of the Appalachian range
Is white with chestnut blooms. Hundreds Of
tons of this edible literally rot unused excent
by few wild pigs and cattle. No one who has
not travelled through the mountains can form
an idea of the crop of these nuts which Is left
ungathered. In Italy the chestnut furnishes
succuient wholesome food to the majority of
the people. Why should not some distinct d.