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preparatory to raising these two crops on the same ground.

The date palms produce fruit in their third year and bear generously from the fifth year on and unlike most fruit trees do not deteriorate with age. Some of

the historic palms in the Orient are said to be a couple of thousand years old and bear from 400 to 600 pounds per tree every year.

A source of revenue aside from the fruit is the sale of the off-shoots from the mature trees which are banked up so as to allow the shoot to form a root of its own. These may be cut away and used for extending the date orchard, or they have a ready market. This method of propagating by shoots is more satisfactory than that of planting the seeds even though the cost is greater, for the date has its peculiarities, one of which is that a seed of one variety may produce a tree of an entirely different nature and you never can tell whether you are going to get a superior or an inferior sort. Mr. W. F. Stevens, one of the pioneer date growers of the Salton Basin, states that one may expect at least one hundred plants of the best quality of dates from the one thousand seeds planted to the acre.

After the young trees come to flower it is possible to determine which are the fruit-bearing, or female plants, and then almost all of the male plants, perhaps half of the total number of seedlings, are taken up. But these are not a total loss as there is a good market for them in the cities for ornamental trees, and

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when the industry is conducted on a larger scale such trees would have a value as raw materials for cordage and other manufacturing products.

On the other hand the propagation by off-shoots seems to be a matter of certainty even though much more expensive, as the female tree of a given high grade date will produce nothing but female, or fruit-bearing, off-shoots of the same grade. Experiments show that on an average the grower can take off one shoot a year from a tree after its third year up until its tenth year, although cases have been known of off-shoots being produced up to the twentieth year.

The method of planting seedlings is to set the trees in rows thirty feet apart

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and about eighteen inches between seeds in the row. In this way it is possible to plant about one thousand seeds to an acre. As the trees develop they are thinned out until finally there is a space of thirty feet between the trees in both directions. In setting out shoots there is the same space of thirty feet allowed between the rows, of course, but the shoots in the row are not placed so close together. When the trees are mature the long fronds will intertwine even at that distance, forming vistas of graceful arches and yielding a delightfully cool shade for the desert dweller. There is probably no tree in the world which is more beautiful than the date palm with its long curving leaves and its huge clusters of golden fruit from eighty to one hundred and thirty pounds to the tree.

A Department of Agriculture bulletin gives this statement:

"There exists already a large market for a date of superior quality, suitable for household uses, and for employment in confectionery, while demand for the finest grade of Saharan Deglet Noor dates far exceeds the supply even when they are sold for more than selected Smyrna figs. American orders for a quarter million pounds have been refused by the Algerian producers because the supply barely sufficed the European demand.

"It is clear from what has preceded in this bulletin that the Salton Basin is not only the most promising region in the United States for the culture of the best sort of dates, but it is actually better adapted for the profitable culture than those parts of the Saharan Desert where the best export dates are produced.

"There can be no doubt that the Deglet Noor date will ripen fully in the Salton Basin, even when the season is exceptionally cool. The importance of this demonstration can hardly be overestimated, since it renders it possible to establish in America the culture of this choice date, the most expensive of dried fruits, with certainty of success."

The foregoing bulletin states that at a conservative estimate 4,500 pounds of dates can be produced per acre.

This is not mere theory but conclusions from actual tests in Arizona and the Salton Basin, where the government has an experimental fruit station with ninety different kinds of date palms. In addition to this there are several ranchers in the valley who are producing marketable fruit on a small scale.

The market price of these dates ranges from thirty-five to fifty cents and even to a dollar a pound for the fancy grades. No expensive artificial process is required to prepare the date for shipment; its own sugar is a natural preservative.

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LANDING FOR SMALLER CRAFT AT TAMPICO, A SEAPORT ON THE PANUCO RIVER.

NAVIGABLE WATERWAYS OF MEXICO

T

By

W. D. HORNADAY

HE Mexican government began the development of the inland waterways of that country several years ago. There are a number of navigable rivers which have been cleared of obstructions and opened for traffic, and the work is still in progress on some of the streams. Some of these rivers reach far into the interior and are the arteries of trade for large scopes of territory. The Panuco River, which is used as a deep water harbor at Tampico, situated a few miles from its mouth, is navigable for a distance of 160 miles for boats of considerable size. Regular lines of steamers and smaller craft ply

up and down its course, bringing to the market at Tampico for export and local consumption enormous quantities of products which are raised upon the rich plantations that extend back from its banks for many miles. The Soto la Marina River which empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 150 miles north of Tampico, is broad and deep at its mouth. It is navigable for river boats for a distance of seventy-five miles. The government recently awarded the contract for removing the bar at the mouth of this stream by means of dredging. This is the first step towards the establishment of a new deep water port. The town of Soto la Marina is situated about

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ONE OF THE BOATS THAT PLY THE WATERS OF LAKE TAMIAHUA.

while the water of the Soto la Marina as well as the other streams of Mexico is clear as the blue sky which shines overhead. Below Tampico a little more than one hundred miles is the Tuxpan River which empties into the gulf at the town of Tuxpan. It is also navigable for a considerable distance, having a depth of more than thirty feet. But for the fact that the water over the bar at its mouth is only six and one-half feet deep ocean-going vessels would be able to tie up at the wharves at Tuxpan and it would become

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The Papaloapan

a deepwater harbor.

River which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, near Vera Cruz, has been dredged and made navigable. Its principal tributary, the Santo Domingo, has been treated in a like manner. The opening of these rivers for boat traffic has proved of great benefit to the many towns and plantations which are situated in the interior. A direct outlet for their products is now afforded. The Coatzacoalcos River, on the isthmus of Tehuantepec, is a stream of considerable importance from a traffic standpoint.

Far down in the tropics and emptying into the Gulf of Campeche at Frontera is the Grijalva River. It is one of the broadest and most imposing streams in Mexico. Large boats ply regularly up this stream to San Juan Bautista, a distance of about seventy-five miles. The smaller boats go much farther, the boat traffic extending into the mountains where the stream has its source. The Usumacinta River is the principal tributary of the Grijalva. It is navigable far beyond the Guatemala line in which country it has its source.

On the Pacific side of Mexico are several rivers which are of navigable size. The Balsas is a large stream, but rapids along its upper course interfere with the operation of larger boats. The Rio Grande de Santiago which empties into the Pacific about midway between

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