The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-28

/
Professor Fairchild made several
| explorations through Europe. Asia and
Africa, and has been in constant touch
for over dozen years with agricul-
/ tural research stations and depart
ments in all parts of the world. Mis-
| SionarieS in Asia and Africa, Arneri-
can consuls in these lands and in
South America and the South Sea is
! lands and foreign plant breeders and
| agricultural officers are sending thou
sands of new things to washington
each year for the benefit of American
| agriculture.
Of quite a different character was
the work done during the last few
months in the heart of the Sahara
| Desert by Professor Walter A. Swingle,
who has been working twelve years
| to establish in the alkalt regions of
date growing. Professor SWingle is
not an agricultural explorer. He is
the head of one of the important di-
visions of the agricultural department,
that of plant life history. But his
work in Africa in connection with the
introduction of date growing in this
country has been of an interesting
character.
Professor Swim gle's connection with
the efforts to establish date growing
in the United States began in 1899,
and since then the experiments have
developed so satisfactorily in Arizona
and California that there were nearly
1000 bearing date palms in the south
west this past year
''The time has arrived to teach
Am erican growers how to pack. handle
and market their dates" said Pro-
fessOr Swingle to the correspondent
of the Topeka State Journal. my
visit to the Sahara regions this year
was with the particular object of
studying the handling and packing
methods of the French, German and
Arabian date merchants. and to as
certain what features of their methods
were adaptable to the conditions in
America"
Third Trip to Desert.
This was Professor Swingle's third
trip into the desert regions. He has
travelled by caravan as much as a
hundred miles from railway connec-
tions in the search for new varieties
of dates to be tried in this country.
The first date palm he brought over
came in a tub, and date palm impor-
tation seemed doomed because no
cheap and effective way could be de-
vised to bring over young offshoots
for American cultivation.
On his second trip Professor Swingle
found that fifty trees could be brought
over safely in a box, with their roots
packed in moss for the price of one
specimen rooted and growing in tub.
That discovery marked the real begin
ming of date culture development in
the southwest. The government now
has five experiment orchards. at In
dio and Mecca in California, Tampe
and Yuma In Arizona, ana Laredo IN
Texas.
Because it will grow in alkali soil.
and thrives in extreme heat, the date
will be a most valuable reSourse for the
irrigated lands of the southwest. Fur
Their than this, Professor Swingle be-
Iieves it will ultimately be a highly
profitable fruit crop for more valuable
lands, because of the rapid growth
and heavy yield of the date palm.
Over 200 varieties of dates have
been imported and set out in the gov
ernment's orchards through the eff
forts of Professor Swingle and Pro-
fessor Fairchild. The choice date va
rieties are only produced by offshoots,
and the trees cannot be budded or
grated. For this reason it has be-
come necessary to find out what va
rieties are best suited to particular To-
calities, and the government gardens
in the southwest are solving that rid
die.
The date must be pollenated by hand.
another thing that makes its culture Pc
culiar. One male tree to 100 fem~te trees
is the basis Of planting iow Je-ida7 upon,
and the pollen-bearing flowers fsDm the
male palm, which bears no fruit. must be
broken off and tied by hand among the
clusters of blossoms of the female trees
The palm sometimes begins to bear at
the age of three years. ana far as the
records of the Sahara desert show, II
may continue to bear for 500 years.
One Variety UnObtainable.
There is one spot in the desert to which
Prof SwingIe could not obtain access.
Before his return to the United States the