A Valuable Tree for California [pp. 73-77]

A Valuable Tree for California.
They are grown in Italy and Spain.
They are among the regular exports
from the Chinese ports of Foochow and
Chefoo and from Singapore. This shows
the great importance of the date, and its
wide spread growth and production in
Europe, Asia, and Africa. It was introduced into Spain in the eighth century
by the Moors, and brought from that
country to California by the Mission
Fathers prior to the occupation of this
State by the Americans. The date is
found growing in a number of localities
in California, and there can be no doubt
that when the methods of planting and
reproduction are better understood they
will multiply rapidly throughout the interior of the State. They have been
successfully grown at Santa Barbara,
Riverside, Pomona, Ontario, Santa Ana,
Elsinore, Winters, Newcastle, as well as
in other localities. At the second citrus
fair in Sacramento, there was a fine exhibit of both the red or China date and
also the white dates by S. C. and J. R.
Wolfskill of Winters, Yolo County. The
seeds of these trees were planted in i857,
and had been obtained from some of the
common dried dates purchased in San
Francisco.
The little trees only grew about one
foot each year, and were twenty years
old before they bore any fruit. The red
'date had ripened perfectly but the white
had not. It was thought by the Wolfskills that the season here was too short
to ripen this fruit. It is probably due
to the fact that the staminate and pistilate flowers were not near enough to
each other, so that one could fertilize
the other. To facilitate this, in the date
regions the trees are planted near each
other, and about one male to twenty
female trees. The white dates exhibited were about an inch and a quarter
long, while the red date was considerable smaller. Mr. J. W. Smyth of Newcastle in Placer County, has the red or
China date in bearing. At Santa Barbara and at Riverside, as well as in a few
other places in this State, the date is
now bearing fruit.
Recent inquiries show that a large
number of young date trees are now
growing in California, and have not been
affected by our winters. Most of these
were grown from the seed, and it will be
years before any number of these come
into bearing. The conditions of soil and
climate are such that the date can be
grown in all of the hot interior valleys
of this State, and will no doubt be found
a valuable crop. While all parts of the
tree will not be utilized as among the
people of Africa and Arabia, yet the
fruit grown will supply the people of
this country with the dried dates now
imported from the old world. Owing to
the better facilities for drying and caring
for this fruit, we may in a few years expect a superior quality of date to be put
upon the market.
We are confident that the grower for
many years will find the date very profitable, ranking in this respect with the
orange, olive and fig. When the merits
of this valuable tree become better
known there will be large plantations
of them in California, and then she will
compete with the old world in this fruit
as she is already doing with the raisin
and the fig.
S. S. Boynton.
189o.]
77