The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-02
GERRIT P. WILDER AND
DATE PALM CULTURE

Editor Advertiser: I have been
much interested in reading the article
by Mr.. A. B. Leckenby, printed in
your Sunday Advertiser of August 80,
on the subject of Date Palms; also
that on the same subject, contributed
by Mr.. L. G. Blackman, and printed in
the Advertiser of Monday, August 81.
| The date palm IS assuredly one Of
| the most ornamental and valuable of
fruit trees, and one in which | am
especially interested. In this connec.
ton, I should like to give to you one
of the communications on the subject
from Mr.. David Fairchild, AgricuI-
tural Explorer in charge of the For
eign Explorations Depa@tment at Wash
ington, and bearing date of December
9. 1907:
Mr.. Gerrit P. Wilder, Honolulu, Ha-
waii.
Dear Mr.. Wilder: Your letter of
November 80 has just reached me.
| want to reply with regard to the
date palm matter, that since | wrote
you with regard to it, complications
have arisen. We have found that it
is practically an impossibility to so
fumigate date palm suckers, that they
will be absolutely free from scale in,
sects. This being the case, we are
afraid to make the attempt to send you
any date suckers until you have made
some special arrangements with your
Quarantine Commissioner, Mr.. Craw.
[ would suggest. Mr.. Wilder, that
you can very easily grow good varieties
of dates from seeds; we are now plant,
h7,n DC oT thousands Of
in the Southwest, and a great many
of the seedlings which have come into
bearing have produced very good fruit
indeed.
If you would like to have us seno
you a quantity Of seeds of different
varieties we would be very glad in
deed to do so.
The interesting part about this mat |
ter of Seeding dates is that you never |
know until the fruit comes into bear |
ing, whether you are going to have |
a superlative variety or not. If you |
plant main suckers, you know pretty |
well beforehand what you are going
to get, unless the climatic conditions |
are against you.
am sorry. that it does not seem
feasible to import into your Islands
any of our date palm suckers which !
we have secured from abroad at the
present time.
We are continuing our methods of
but as | said before, it
seems to be physical impossibility,
with our present knowledge, to guaran
tee suckers free from scale.
With kind regards, [ remain,
Very truly yours,
DAVID FAIRCHILD,
4 gricultural Explorer in Charge, For
eign Explorations.
The above letter speaks for itself.
As to seedlings, l would say, that there
ire growing in Honolulu today, and
bearing remarkably well, some very
inc date palms, which have been
from the seeds of dried
lates purchased from the grocer. One
IF these trees, fine healthy specimen
# the yellow fruit variety, is in the gar
len of Judge Dole in Emma street. This
rec was grown from seeds of dried
lates purchased of a Greek named
Iamarinos, who, some years ago, kept
small fruit shop on King street. II
Other fine trees of the black fruited
7ariety are growing in the garden of
Mrs. Ward at the Old Plantation on
King street. These also were pTOpagat-
ID from the seeds of imported dried
lates. Among this number is one
male tree. They bear abundantly, and
he fruit is large, sweet and delicious.
Very respectfully yours, II
GERRIT P. WILDER.
Tuesday, September ], 1908.