B
Southwestern "Deserts"
SimmiUQ ORCHARD -AT JTHSSZVO
(Copyright, 1911, by Frank a. Carpenter.)
ASHINGTON, D. C. (Special to The Bee.)
Uncle Sam raised enough dates last
year to give every man, woman and
child In the country a handful and leave
some to spare. The amount was 20,
000,000 pounds, and the fruit was as
fine as that which comes from the oasea
! of the Sahara., Much of it was raised about the Sal
ton sea, in Southern California, where it Is so hot that
the hens are said to lay boiled eggs and where, as is
alleged by others, there is only a sheet of brown pa
: per between it and the lower regions. Other dates
; were grown in the Rio Grande valley of Texas, and
others on the scorching sands of southern Arizona.
Th Arabs say that the date palm must have its feet
n the water and its head in the burning sun.
Those are the Conditions in many parts of our
reat southwest. The sun is white hot, but by Irriga
tion the palms are kept moist, and they produce this
delicious fruit, which contains more sugar tan any
bther on earth. These potential date regions are very
extensive. I have been inquiring about them of the
Agricultural department, and Mr. Walter T. Swingle,
who has special charge of this Industry, tells me that
have several million acres that will raise excellent
ates, and that we could, if we would, supply an tne
ates that are eaten by man.
The Dates of the Sahara.
But before I give you my talk with Prof. Swingle,
let me take you through some of the date countries of
pie world. Many of our dates come from the Sahara,
that great stretch of desert which runs across North
tAfrlca, covering almost as much land as th whole
United States. I have visited a number of its oases,
md have picked dates from the trees.
The oases are garden spots in this vast region of
Band and rock. There are 80,000 squarrailes of
bem, a territory equal to twice that of Ohio, Kentucky
and Virginia, and upon all of them the chief crop Is
Hates. Each oasis is measured, not by its area, but
by the number of date trees it i contains, and the
French of Morocco and Algeria taxhe people accord
ing to the size of their orchards.
Dates have the same place in the Sahara that our
Wheat has In the north and cotton in the south. It
the money crop, and the chief support of the people.
t la th date that loads tne caravans or cameis mat
; move to and. fro over the desert. It might also be
called the bread of the Sahara, for in some places the
Arabs eat but liUle else, the fruit being fed to the
camels and even to dogs.
This date stock feed, however, Is different from the
fruit we have in America. The oases have as many
kinds of dates as we have apples.' There are more
than 100 different date palms in the Sahara, and many
others In the Persian gulf region. The dates we eat
re full of sugar, and are so soft and Juicy that they
xnust be drained before being packed. The favorite
Idtte of the Sahara is a dry date, which can be kept a
long time, and which Is sometimes pulverized and so
cooked. Another date Is dellciously sweet. It Is of
ft yellow color, and Is as plump as a prune before It Is
i pressed.
Persian Gulf Dates.
i
One of the most interesting date regions of tne
: World is about) the Persian gulf In the valley of the
(Euphrates, not far from where the Tower of Babel
once stood, and near the supposed location of the Gar-
den of Eden. I have talked about this country with
Mr. David Falrchild, the agricultural explorer, who
has gone around the world, like a watch spring.
scratching its surface for new plants and trees to ln-
jiuce Into the United States. He made a special
trip to study the date groves of the Persian gulf, which
are still furnishing most of that fruit that comes to
America. Mr. Falrchild says there are something
like 20,000,000 date palms in that territory, and that
n unbroken date forest runs along the Shatel-Arab,
which forms the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris
rivers, for a distance of over seventy miles. That
mighty date grove is several miles wide, and it con
tains altogether about 5,000,000 trees. It is irrigated
by the river, the tides backing the fresh water into
the canals and giving the roots of each palm a bath
twice a day.
The Persian dates are of hundreds of varieties, and
Mr. Falrchild heard of some that are said to be seed
less, in this respect corresponding perhaps to the
naval orange which. is now so common all over our
Country.
Mr. Falrchild sent shoots of several varieties of
dates to the United States, and has thus been instru
mental in giving us some of the first trees planted in
our arid west. He also forwarded date trees from the
Fayoum, in Egypt, from Arabia and from other places
Which he visited during his travels.
Bringing Dates to America.
The man who has done more for date culture
In the United States than any other, however, is Mr.
IWalter T. Swingle, who as a botanist and plant breeder
ranks as high as Luther Burbank, the so-called wizard
f California. Mr. Swingle has bred new dates, new
tigs and new citrus fruits, including oranges which
can be grown as far north as central Georgia. He has
been lagely instrumental in introducing the date and
the fig into our country, and has also given us the
pistachio and other valuable plants of the Mediterran
ean region. He has been connected with the Depart
ment of Agriculture for more than twenty years, and
became Interested In the introduction of dates and
figs during his stay at Naples, where hs went to stud
W uncle Sam raised cnougn dates last , . i ."V v jjf t VA' L k ' I ' - " . i
y. to give every man, woman and "'f' 1
I child In the country a handful and leave L V V; H 1 ' " ' ViA5f J ' -'
CTfCl ome to spare. The amount was 20.- V'vl ' 5'liK J 'f ' ' I
others on the scorching sands of southern Arizona. Ill .. .,' f S'5 I
y Those are the Conditions in many parts of our II -4 ! t - ? . - u TlV
THE
tropical agriculture about & decade or so ago. He then
traveled through Asia Minor and crossed over into
Africa, going down into the Sahara. Prior to his visit
to the date regions there some seetTlrng date trees had
been grown in California and Arizona, and there bad
been attempts by the department to import shoots or
suckers from the date trees of Africa.
The chief way of starting: a date grove in the Sa
hara is to take up the suckers, which sprout out from
the trunk of the palm, and plant them. The method
of shipping them to the United States was to set them
out in tabs near the trees from which they were
taken and to allow them to grow for one year. At
the end of that time the plant in the tub was sent to
New York and thence to the west. This method was
costly. The steamships did not like to handle the tubs,
and they charged freight at the rate of one ton per
tub. The expense was almost prohibitive.
Mr. Swingle conceived the idea of sending the
shoots fresh from the tree. He sent to Paris for a
bale of a special kind of moss, and with this, after it
had been well wet, he wrapped the ends of the suck
ers. He then tied each up in straw and packed them
in ordinary shoe boxes, which he was able to ship at
the regular freight rates. It was found that the
shoots arrived in Arizona and California In excellent
condition. They were transplanted In the date gar
dens there and rapidly grew.
Where Our Date Farms Are.
During his second visit to Algeria, Mr. Swingle
made one shipment of over four hundred of these
suckers, three-fourths of which became trees, and since
then we have had other importations made the same
way. Some of the suckers were set out at Tempe,
Ariz., not far from Phoenix. Theodore Roosevelt,
while president, feasted on dates from those trees and
thousands of pounds were harvested from them this
year. Others of the suckers went to California, and
some have been sent to an extensive date region which
is now being tested near4 Laredo, Tex. Not a few so
Imported are growing in the Imperial valley of south-
era California. Mr. Swingle tells me that dates may
be grown in California as far north as Sacramento, but
that the finest varieties will succeed beet about Yuma,
Arizona, and on the, southernmost edge of California.
There is no use attempting to grow them where the
temperature falls below 65 Fahrenheit, and the hotter
the better. There are some regions in Nevada where
dates might grow, and this is so also in New Mexico
and all along the hot Rio Grande river in Texas with
the exception of a short distance near the mouth where
the moist winds from the Gulf of Mexico make the
summer too cool to ripen the fruit
Breeding Fine Dates
It is a singular thing that the fruit seems to thrive
on an alkali soiL In some of the orchards which are
now growing the land Is so salty that weeds will not
spring up on it and nothing but desert plants can be
grown.
Mr. Swingle expects that the United States will
some day produce dates superior to any now grown.
The Arab have tried to perpetuate the old varieties,
using the shoots or suckers of the date trees rather
than seedlings for planting new groves. This has been
the same In Persia and elsewhere. It la different in
our date gardens of the west. The scientists there are
taking the best of the old varieties and breeding new
ones; they have hundreds of different kinds and are
producing others each year. The trees are male and
female, and Uncle Sam's match-makers are marrying
the best specimens of each variety with an Idea that
the children that come from the seeds will have the
best qualities of each parent. With this in view the
Department of Agriculture is sending out thousands of
seeds and urging the farmers of thoBe hot, arid regions
to set out date gardens. This is comparatively cheap
when the trees are grown from the seeds and the date
orchards, once in bearing, prove enormously profitable.
The trees begin to fruit in three years and the dates
sell at retail from 10 to 50 cents a pound, according
to quality. The average yield of a Deglet Noor palm
is put at from 88 to 132 pounds, and an estimate of
$150 profit per acre a year Is not out of the way.. Even
OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: AUGUST 20.
Yield Rich Fruits of
counting only seventy-five pounds to a tree, an acre
should yield 4,000 or 5,000 pounds a year.
There Is no doubt but that the demand for dates
can be greatly increased. The California Fruit Grow
ers' association has by advertising and marketing
added 33 per cent to the demand for oranges in Iowa
and it Is spending $100,000 this year to increase the
sale of that fruit In Illinois, Wisconsin and other states.
The same may be done with the date. This fruit is the
great dessert food of France, and a box of fine dates
forms the chief Christmas present there. The Agricul
tural department believes that the time will come when
dates will be consumed by our people much as oranges
are now, and they tell me that we have the soil and
climate which can supply any demand.
Our Big Fig Crop
Another tropical fruit which is now affecting Cali
fornia, Arizona and Texas, as well as other parts of the
west, is the Smyrna fig. This fruit can be raised over
a great area and there Is no doubt but that we could
produce all we consume. Nevertheless, nine-tenths of
our figs still come from abroad, and we are importing
4,000,000 pounds every year. California has long
realized the money that might be made ont of the
business, and it has tried again and again to go into it
It did not succeed, however, until Mr. Swingle brought
here from Asia Minor the blastophagas and trained It
to work in the harness of the horticulturist.
I wonder If you ever heard of the blastophagas. It
Is a little insect which looks like a wasp, only much
smaller; Its chief job in life Is carrying the pollen from
National Pastime
O EXPENSE has been spared by the own
ers of the clubs in the two major leagues
to make the season one of the greatest
in the history of base ball, says the
Chicago Tribune. Considerably more
than $500,000 has been expended in
preparing for the season. The figure
will be nearer to $1,000,000 if the repairs to the ball
parks and erection of new stands are taken into con
sideration. By far the greatest expense borne by the owners
has been the cost of the new players, obtained in an
effort to strengthen the teams for the coming cam
paign. Each of the sixteen clubs in the big leagues
signed on an average of twenty young players, stars
of the minor leagues. These players cost the owners
about $300,000 in cash, this money going to the coffers
of the minor league owners who had the youngsters
under contract. Some of these rising young players
were sold with the understanding that a bonus should
be paid if they were retained in the service of the
major league clubs after being tried out. The bonuses
which must be paid under these circumstances by the
major leagues amount to nearly $100,000. These
youngsters consequently represent an investment of
approximately $400,000.
Yet this does not begin to cover the total expenses
of the club owners. The players obtained must be
tried out in the southern training camps in order that
their real worth may be discerned. While the regular
players run up the expenses of these camps as well as
the recruits, the latter from one of the chief concerns
of the managers, and it has been estimated that the
club owners have expended $200,000 In maintaining
training quarters this Bprlng in order to find ont
whether the players who cost them $100,000 are
worth anything or not.
John I. Taylor, president of the Boston Red Sox,
chartered special Pullman cars to take his squad of
forty odd players to the Pacific coast and back, at
great expense. The White Sox special, which was
chartered by President Comiskey of the Chicago Amer
icans, cost $10,000, and only carried the team to
Texas and back, stopping over for exhibition games.
All the other clubs maintained expensive training
camps in the south,
N
1911.
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the male fig tree to the female fig tree and thereby
fertilizing the fruit. Without it is fertilized the fruit
is not good; it will not stay on the tree and 1b of no'
commercial value whatever.
Now the blastophagas is like the boll weevil in that
it will feed upon only one crop. The boll weevil will
eat nothing but cotton. The blastophagas can live on
nothing but the Smyrna fig; It can be born only In
the caprl fig, and the figs of the male tree are seem
ingly good for nothing but to serve as a breeding
ground for this insect.
Fertilized by Insect Enemy.
While talking about this matter with Mr. Swingle
he drew for me two pictures of the blossoms of the
male and female trees; each Is of the shape of a bell,
with a narrow mouth, minute flowers being on the
inside of the bell. In the male tree the flowers are so
short that when the Mme. Blastophagas sticks in her
tall and deposits the eggs they are close enough to be
come a part of the fruit, and they soon hatch therein
and crawl forth as wasps like their mother. If one
of these caprl figs Is cut open before it is ripe it will
be seen to be full of grains which look much like seeds.
These grains are minute galls, each of which contains
a fig Insect. When the insects are ready to bite their
way out of the galls the mouth of the caprl fig opens
and a ring of male flowers situated below it begin to
shed pollen and carry It to the female flowers which
line the young budding figs on the female tree. The
dusting of the female flowers with pollen causes the
fruit to set and to bear fertile seeds, which give the
flavor and make the Smyrna fig so delicious.
Now these flowers about the figs on the female
trees are longer than those on the male trees. They
are so long that when the wasp puts its tall In and
lays its epgs they do not reach to the bottom and the
eggs dry up to nothing. However, as the blastophagas
lays she drops this pollen on the blossoms and fertil
izes the fruit. The flowers on the figs of the male
tree are shorter, and the eggs reach the fruit and
Bpeedily hatch. The work of laying the eggs on th
Trifle Expensive
In order to get the most brilliant youngsters In
the minor leagues every major league club keeps two
or three salaried scouts traveling from one end of the
country to the other, going over the "bush" leagues
with a fine tooth comb in order that no "future
great" may escape. Few there are, indeed, who are
overlooked by the eagle eyes of the cleverest Judges
of base ball players. The expense of these scouts is
charged up as well against the recruits, and would
probably amount to another $100,000 for sixteen
clubs.
In the neighborhood of $700,000, therefore, it
has cost the managers of the big leagues to look over
the best base ball talent which appeared In the minors
last season. When all is said and done it seems to
be spent more to satisfy their curiosity than anything
else. If one or two players out of the twenty odd
signed by a club are found worthy to warm the bench
on which the stars of a team sit a manager feels that
, he is fortunate Indeed. The rest are turned back to
the minors and sold at a great sacrifice. As castoffs
of the big leagues they are not considered to be worth
much, and minor league owners are not prone to pay
ing the fancy prices which they demand from their
major league compeers.
This immense sum is annually spent and small is
the tangible return. Very often a major league man
ager will find a youngster whom he can keep, but,
after all, when he knows that there is no star among
the bush league teams he would rather save money. It is
a defensive practice, as well as offensive, this obtain
ing of recruits. While one manager may not need a
brilliant lnflelder, he likes to keep another manager
from getting him. The real essence of the matter is
nothing less than a never ceasing search for another
Christy Mathewson, another Tyrus Cobb or another
Honus Wagner. If ten years of hunting reveals a
star of this type and nothing else, the efforts of the
manager have been rewarded beyond price, for the
value of such players to a club can hardly be reckoned
in dollars and cents. The sin which can never be
forgiven a manager Is to let a good man go when he
might have been obtained even at high cost. The big
prizes In star players are few enough and they cost
enormously.
the Earth
female trees Is a deception practiced by nature on the
wasps, but it works nevertheless, and such as lay their
egge on the flowers of the male tree are enough to
perpetuate the race for the figs of the future.
How We Got the BlantophagM.
The people of California knew about this Insect
and tried to get it for a long time before they suc
ceeded. Indeed, our knowledge of it dates back into
antiquity. Herodotus refers to capriflcatlon in some
of his writings In the fifth century, before Christ, and
Aristotle speaks of it In hlB history of animals. It was
well known throughout the orient, and it has been
carried from Asia Minor to Africa, so that the Moors
and Algerians raise their figs in this way. In 8myrna,
the fig growers cut the male figs containing the insects
in halves and string them on wire sticks, asd then
throw them up into the female trees, and the same Is
now being done in our fig orchards.
As to the introduction of the Insect into California,
this was attempted twenty-one years ago. but It was
not successful. During the eight or nine years follow
ing other attempts were made and failed, and then
Prof. Swingle, having spent a long time In the study
of the insect and its methods of working, Bent some
capri figs, whose cut stems had been waxed and which
were wrapped In tin foil, to California. The wasps
came out, but it was not the right time of year for the
female blossoms, and another attempt was made In
1899. This was successful, and to make a long story
short, the blastophaga began to breed by the millions
& year. They are now to be found in the male trees
of all the fig orchards, and we are raising fruit that
will compete with that of Smyrna In the world's mar
kets. Breeding New Figs.
At the same time the Smyrna fig is being bred, and
new figs created, thevery best figs are being married,
and new varieties are coming into being. One of these
has a gum drop in its mouth, which seals up the place
where rain is liable to go in and rot the fig. This Is
known as the Rixford fig. It is a fruit which practi
cally cans iself, and therefore may be guaranteed
clean, without and within. Another-self-seallng va
riety was discovered three years ago; after two soak
ing rains had spoiled the figs on the adjoining trees
of a different variety. Cuttings of these varieties are
being distributed to all who will plant three seedling
fig trees for every cutting received.
The Maslln Fig Orchard.
One of the great breeding grounds for new figs is
the Maslln fig orchard in Placer county, Cal. This is
now a government station, being rented to Uncle Sam
for a nominal sum by the Southern Pacific railroad.
It contains 199 fig trees, which were planted from the
seeds of the beet imported Smyrna figs by E. W. Mas
lln, the seeds having been sown almost a quarter of a
century ago. Prior to that there had been attempts to
raise Smyrna figs In California, but owing to non
caprificatlon and other reasons they were all unsuc
cessful. Mr. Maslln thought the Turks were sending
us bad seeds, and so he wrote to Thurber & Co., the
well known grocers of New York, to ship him a box
of their very best Smyrna figs, as he wanted to plant
the seeds. They did so, and having bought this plan
tation he gave up his office and attempted to make
money orcharding. Thee seeds sprouted and he got
153 trees. Later on he found that his figs would not
fruit, and he eventually had to give up his orchard
and the estate connected with It.
In the meantime Mr. Swingle tried to buy the or
chard for the bureau of plant industry of the United
States Department of Agriculture, but the new owner
asked an extravagant price, whereupon the title was
investigated and was found to lie in the Southern Pa
cific railroad, the orchard being on the right of way.
The matter was referred to the railroad authorities and
they being glad to promote the fruit industry leased
the land to the United States government for an in
definite period for $1 per acre per year.
In that orchard there are now soventy-four male
trees and sixty-five female trees. All are twenty years
old. From the seedlings base tprung up a dozen val
uable new varieties, some of which are unequaled by
any that we have Imported from the best fig-growing
regions of Asia Minor, North Africa and Europe. In
addition the department has several thousand other
Beedllngs produced from the finest varieties of figs
and these are being distributed to fig growers In dif
ferent parts of the west. The result will be that the
United States will eventually not only raise all its
own figs, but that it will have the best figs that can
be produced. FRANK O. CARPENTEB.