Imperial Valley press., 1921-10-13
VALLEY WILL
PR D B UCE
FINEST Of
DATES
Soil and Climate Is Peculiar
ly Adapted to Growing of
This Splendid Fruit, Says
Horticultural Expert.

Experiments carried on over period
of IL years have demonstrated that
the climate and soil of this valley will
produce dates the equal of or super
or of any that are grown in any 9TH
er date growing district, from Asia
Minor to Mexico, says j. D. Dudley,
date expert, in the Brawley News.
and valuable fruit on an extensive
scale has been retarded by the want
of understanding of the care and at
tention necessary to make conditions
favorable for fruit production that
is commercially successful.
A general idea has existed that it
was necessary only to plant a few
seeds and without any care or atten-
ton produce a garden of palms, each
one of which would bear hundreds of
pounds of fruit that would find a
ready market at $1.00 or more a
pound.
The results of these methods have
not been surprising. AS the success
full development of this fruit will not
only require intricate direction in the
various departments, as with other
fruit more than likely specialists will
devote their entire time to the pro-
duction of one Of the many varieties
already favorably known, as we'll as
to the development and production os
the varieties that may originate here.
Exception has been taken to lhis
haphagard method of planting by
growers who have made a study of
the palm. BY care and selection they
have improved their garden to such
an extent that an examination of
these will prove the commercial pos
sibility of this fruit to the most skep-
tical.
foremost among these growers is
Francis Heiny. A visit to his sunker
garden on the banks of New River
northwest of Brawley and just out
side the city limits is revelation,
Heiny's work verifies the fact that an
excellent quality of fruit is being pro
duced, that the quantity grown is
surprisingly large and furthermore
that the tree develops more rapidlv
IN this climate than the growers were
led to expect.
Another advantage of date culture
IS that minimum amount of labor
is required in the summer, duriay the
period of extreme heat. also that tho
palm is not eX9cting in its soil re-
quirements. In fact some land par
tlcularly adapted to date culture is OF
little or no other agricultural yalue.
Soil with AZ excess of moisture and
considerable amount of salt pro
duces dates remarkably well.
The question of marketing fruit
on an extensive scale can only be
answered by actual experience. But
the fact remains that heavy cror
Of fruit with a high sugar content
and exceptional food value can be
produced over large area of this
labor and money. Add to this the
fact that the returns to the shippei
of this fruit should be such az tC
make the freight rates seem reason
able and the water charge nominal.
The cultivation of the date palm il
destined to become one of the mos
imoortant industries of the vale,
and possibly one of the biggest il
the state.
In few days a Date Festival will
he held at lndio. in the Coachel,'
Valley, and visit to it would cor
tainlv be interesting and profitab! Il
At this festival the progress alread'
made will be shown and a visitor will
be able to somewhat annreciatc m
wonderful future of this splendi
fruit of which the Salton Basn
seems TO eniov a practical monopol
in the United States.