Arizona republican., 1910-12-21
The Final Success of Date Culture.

The Final Success of Date Culture.
 Our local columns this morning set forth some facts relative to the de- yelopments of date culture which are
 of unusual interest.
 Professor R. H. Forbes of the Uni- versity of Arizona. who is the director
 of the federal and territorial agri- cultural experiment station work in
 the territory, is. with his assistants
 entitled to public congratulation.
 After ten years of assiduous work, it has been demonstrated that the culture of dates in the Salt River val ley is an unqualified success. Dozens of varieties have been tried all of
 the tickle and fixed conditions of eli
 mate have been tested; all of the questions of insect pests have been settled, and the fact at last stands out, that one variety of the date palm can be grown with extraordinary profit in this valley.
 This variety is the Deglet Moor.
 The Deglet Moor is a prolific pro- ducer. It is the only--date of great commercial value. So much was dem- Onstrated before this year. But the difficulty which confronted Professor Forbes and his assistants was the diff ficulty of ripening the Deglet Moor in this climate. 1t was found that our summers were not long enough to bring this Arabian fruit of the heavens" to properly ripened state on the tree. The experiments of this year had to do with the artificial ripening of the dates after they were found that a very cheap plant" in the way Of a drying house, in which a temperature approXimating l10 de- grees is maintained for only two days, will ripen the dates to perfec tion. The peach and apricot grow CTS of the Sacramento valley, Cali fornia, have to provide more costly drying buildings for their friut.
 According to the information fur nished by Professor Forbes after ten years of painstaking culture of the Deglet Moor date, this fruit is des- tined to he the most profitable prod uct of this valley. With the excep- ton of the lower valley of the Colo rado-the vicinity of Yuma, and the Imperial valley-the Salt River valley has climatic monopoly of the date palm. It will not ripen elsewhere in the United States. The yearly inn portations of dates from abroad are valued at more than three million dol- lars Hence, there is an unlimited market for dates grown here. Each of the trees will produce at least 100 pounds of dates annually. and the fruit will readily sell for twenty cents a pound, wholesale. Eighty trees will grow on an acre of ground. Professor Forbes estimate of $l.G00 as the minimum yied from each acre of Deglet Moor dates is considerably lower than the estimates made by others, not so well grounded in all the details of the experiments. but sixteen hundred dollars an acre should be a fairly satisfactory gross revenue from an acre-especially when s40O will more than cover all interest charges, cost of culture. harvesting and marketing.
 The only drawback connected with the culture of dates is the one of time required to bring the trees into bear i ing. The suckers from the growing 1 trees will grow into bearing in five or six years, but will not come into full bearing under ten years. But it is hot possible to make | a better investment on a tenyear | basis than the planting of a date or chard.