The Detroit times., 1913-12-01
New Invention to Lower Price of Eags

| The distinctive flavor ~ we'll - the
quality 10 Z revelation To the lovers
OF this fruit, who are used to the com
mercial product which IL imported
from the far east In the nr6t place.
the usual amount OF grit which 10
caused by the dust of the Sahara
desert settling on the eastern dates
Is not present In the California fruit
which has come TO this city. The
freedom of the fruit from the dusty
sediment Is due TO the fact that by
picking and packing the dates when
half ripe. before the fruit 10 sticky,
, the dust has no chance to gather.
Secondly, the fruit Is tender and de-
licious. and Is entirely different from
the. stripgy and sometimes tough
fruit which il found In most of the
dates imported into this country.
The slow ripening process, which
also was under the name of the slow
maturation process" which - means
the same thing. was discovered by
accident by Walter T. Swingle OF the
United States department OF agr1r
culture. Mr.. Swingle has specialized
on the study OF date culture. Several
years ago when he was leaving the
experiment station at Mecca, Cal. to
return to Washington, he cut at the
last moment q branch OF the famous
Deglet Moor dates, which were green,
and put them into his suit case. This
suit case was placed under the seat
OF Pullman car or In, a steam-heated
hotel room during the 10 days that
N IN xyIn m t1< Vv<<~~
California back to Washington.
Upon arriving he opened the suit
case. and. very much to his surprise.
found that the dates which had been
perfectly green when taken from the
tree had ripened almost completely
during the Today trip. They were Of
very light amber color. translucent
and OF delicious taste. They were OF
better quality and of better flavor
than any dates which he had ever
tasted ripened by incubation or by
any other process of which he knew.
retaining the distinctive Deglet Moor
flavor so highly priced by lovers OF
dates. a.
DIR. Galloway believes that the
dates which he received the past week
and permitted his visitors to sample
demonstrate that better dates can be
grown In America than those which
are imported from abroad. provided
fruit growers Of the United States are
patient enough to study and master
the best cultural methods for growing
this fruit. Both the assistant secre-
tary and Mr.. Swingle, however, dis
approve speculative date orchard en-
terprises before more Is known about
the best methods of growing the
fruit. Several sections Of the south
western states, particularly the I'M
perial and Coachella valleys Of Call.
fornia and the Salt River valley Of
Arizona, are suited for date culture,
but oficials of the department Of agri-
! culture do not advise planting OF ex-
tensive date orchards until there 10
further development and better or
eanisatien Of the date industry. The
plan at the present time Is to extend
the testing Of different varieties of
dates and their adaptation to the
date-growing regions OF the southwest.
The industry is still very new In this
country and the advice to 60 slow
has been given by the government Of
fcials with the hope Of preventing
losses through planting inadeQuately
tested date varieties or large scale
planting at the present time.