Author Topic: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.  (Read 1195 times)

Francis_Eric

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Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« on: June 20, 2021, 11:59:49 AM »
I saw this saved  in my notes thought I'd post it.
(sort of a link from a  Blog saved in my notes)
(International Fruit & Nut Enthusiasts & Breeders)
blog

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/06/10/320346869/forbidding-fruit-how-america-got-turned-on-to-the-date


In 1898, the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a special department of men called Agriculture Explorers to travel the globe searching for new food crops to bring back for farmers to grow in the U.S.

"These agricultural explorers were kind of like the Indiana Joneses of the plant world," says Sarah Seekatz, a California historian who grew up in the Coachella Valley, the date capital of the U.S.

These men introduced the country to exotic specimens like the mango, the avocado and new varieties of sweet, juicy oranges. But of all the exotic fruits brought, the story of the biblical date — and its marketing, cultivation and pollination — remains one of the most romantic of all.

David Fairchild, a botantist who helped found the Agricultural Explorer program, was one of the first to travel to Baghdad to investigate dates.

"He chose Baghdad," says Seekatz, "in part, because he remembered One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and ... stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The book was a well-known childhood tradition for generations of Americans."


Francis_Eric

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2021, 12:39:05 PM »
I kind of like that story of the Hass Avocado as well


Wasn't that found  by a mailman that sold everything he owned , and moved with his Family
 after seeing a Avocado add with dollar bills hanging from the tree's  in a advertisement
moved out to California
He bought it from a  enthusiastic Man named Albert Raymond Rideout Who
 just grew seeds in random peoples yards since He didn't have space,
and also came up with other cultivars
Since the Grafter had a failure He asked
Rudolph Hass to keep the tree since it grew strong, and it produced Hass.

Do you have any good stories to share or thought on these?

http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_31_1946/CAS_1946_PG_130-131.pdf

See link Text Copied from this link
http://www.ucavo.ucr.edu/AvocadoVarieties/Hass_History.html

A Short History of the Hass Avocado
Avocado Society Yearbook, 1973-1974
The origional tree was really a mistake - a lucky chance seedling. In the late 1920's, Mr. Rudolph Hass, who was a postman, purchased seedling trees from A. R. Rideout of Whittier, for the purpose of developing two acres of budded trees of the Lyon variety. It was Rideout's custom to plant very small seedlings at orchard spacing (12' x 12') at the grove site. The seedlings were grown in 2" x 2" x 8" tarpaper open-ended tubes of square cross sections. The seedlings were to grow in place for a year, or until well established, and be later budded in the field.

Hass' children first brought the tree to his attention. They preferred the fruit. Since the quality was high and the tree bore well, Hass patented it in 1935. The same year he ordered 300 trees propagated to this variety by H. H. Brokaw of Whittier. Hass never planted the ordered trees; however, he entered into an agreement that Brokaw grow and promote the variety in consideration of splitting gross tree income 25% for Hass and 75% for Brokaw.

That wasn't an easy decision in those days because the Hass fruit differed so dramatically from the Fuerte, which was the standard of the industry. Nonetheless, Brokaw began to propagate the rough, black Hass exclusively and promote it in favor of the then standard varieties. He and Hass felt justified inasmuch as the Hass was a far better bearer than the Fuerte and matured at a different time of the year. Because of the seasonal advantage Brokaw was successful to the point of yearly sellouts of his nursery crops of 3 to 10,000 trees. Selling price was $5.00 per tree and against (Fuerte tree) prices varying from $3.50 in good years down to $1.25 in poor ones.

Hass was at first thought to be an upright-growing variety since it was found crowded among other upright growing seedlings. Its season was advertised as being from May to November, even in the La Habra and Whittier areas. Brokaw maintains that this was so, just as the Fuerte commonly held until June in those days. He blames smog for earlier seasons in all varieties.

Despite speculation to the contrary, nobody knows what variety of seed produced the Hass. Rideout was an innovator and pioneer in avocados and used whatever seeds he could find - many times planting them along streets or in neighbor's yards in search for new varieties. Ironically, the Hass was one he hadn't intended to leave as a seedling.





http://www.avocadosource.com/
Sorry edited out wrong link.
(My email doubled each email, and hide the right articles ,
so it's the best I can find looking here..)

http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_57_1973/CAS_1973-74_TOC.htm

California Avocado Society
1973-1974 Yearbook
Volume 57

story also found in 1973 -74 Year book above link with more info
Quote
The dedication of the original seedling Hass tree took place September 22, 1973 at the
discovery location, 426 West Street in La Habrá Heights.

Quote
"When a man starts
talking to his trees," they say, "he ought to sell his grove and get out." And then they
add, "But with prices the way they are, try and get them to do it."


« Last Edit: June 20, 2021, 01:36:01 PM by Francis_Eric »

Oolie

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2021, 01:16:56 AM »
Jim Nitzel was similar to A.R. Rideout in that he was big on sharing propagation materials, and he had a chance seedling that became well known. His seedling failed to take a graft twice, after which he decided to let it grow out. It later became known as the Big Jim Loquat.

Jim gave me a mango shortly before his passing that he requested I plant the seed from. It's only recently bloomed, but no fruit yet. It's sap aroma differs substantially from the parent fruit, which had an indochinese base flavor. The seedling has a sap aroma similar to certain citrus, but it's different from the mandarin smell of Gary descendants, closer to a valencia orange in the spicy aroma.

Time will tell if it's a good variety, but I have my fingers crossed.

Odenwald

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2021, 02:29:39 PM »
Thanks for the link to the interesting article.

johnb51

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2021, 05:40:08 PM »
Nature's candy, that's for sure!
John

RodneyS

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2021, 02:00:23 AM »
Fairchild was also concerned about plant diseases from plants shipped to the US.  The Japanese sent the cherry trees that would be planted in Washington DC.  He found a lot of diseases, and the Japanese sent new & healthy trees to rectify the mistake. 


Francis_Eric

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2021, 10:42:41 AM »
Jim Nitzel was similar to A.R. Rideout in that he was big on sharing propagation materials, and he had a chance seedling that became well known. His seedling failed to take a graft twice, after which he decided to let it grow out. It later became known as the Big Jim Loquat.

Jim gave me a mango shortly before his passing that he requested I plant the seed from. It's only recently bloomed, but no fruit yet. It's sap aroma differs substantially from the parent fruit, which had an indochinese base flavor. The seedling has a sap aroma similar to certain citrus, but it's different from the mandarin smell of Gary descendants, closer to a valencia orange in the spicy aroma.

Time will tell if it's a good variety, but I have my fingers crossed.

Good story that relates  thank you I hope Something new comes out
If he thought something good would come about, and doesn't
maybe good genetics and plant those seeds out who knows  might skip a generation
 (like some people I know)

---------------------------------------------
a story About rubber already posted
If anyone is going through aches , and pains, Like I was
and cant do much it is a good read

Interesting how the Dang scientist of the Nazi's made coal tar into oil for rubber
also Interesting young school kids with a Bunsen burner are able to learn,
 and make plastics like fishing string
wish my school was that good ! Finding that takes some exploring of the site.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=40468.msg398006#msg398006
(or here)
https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/menu.htm
https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/sepisode/spill.htm

Here is a preview

Tlachtli

Our expedition starts here in Mexico. We're in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Someday the world will know it as Mexico City. The year is about 1500, or 7-Acatl on the Aztec calendar. We're here to watch a game called tlachtli.

Tlachtli is kind of like basketball. Games similar to basketball have been played all over Mesoamerica by peoples like the Aztec, the Maya, and the Olmec. The object of Tlachtli is to put a ball through a hoop made of stone at one end of a court. But unlike basketball, the players can't use their hands. Also unlike basketball, where the losing team gets nothing worse than trash-talk from the winners, the losers in this game of tlachtli are going to have their heads chopped off after the game. The players are prisoners of war, the enemies of the Aztecs who are hosting the game. The game is a ritual honoring Amapan and Uappatzin, the patron deities of the game of tlachtli, and honoring Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.

But we're not here because of the gory post-game celebrations. We're interested in the ball these folks are playing with. It's roughly the size of a bowling ball, and weighs about five pounds. (Getting it through the hoop without using the hands is so hard that the first team to score a goal wins.) What's special about this ball is that it is made of natural rubber.


Natural rubber is made by a number of plants which grow in warm climates. Of course, rubber balls aren't the only thing that the Aztec and other people of the Americas make from rubber. Rubber boots, raincoats of rubberized cotton cloth, and water bottles were all produced by the ingenuity of these people. Rubber was valuable enough in the world of ancient Mesoamerica that it was used to pay for goods and services in barter.

Rubber is one of the Americas' best-kept secrets. But the rest of the world will find out about rubber eventually. Back in 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first visit to the West Indies. When he came back in 1496, he visited the island of Hispaniola. There he saw people playing games with rubber balls and was amazed at how well the rubber game balls bounced.

Rubber goes on the back Burner

More newcomers will follow Columbus. As violent as the Aztecs seem to us today, what with their human sacrifice and all, they are going to meet an even more violent group of people. Following Columbus to the Americas were the Spanish conquistadors. A group of conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes will land in Mexico in 1519 and incite a revolt of the oppressed Aztec subjects destroying the Aztec Empire. The subjects would have been better off under their old masters as the Spanish kill or enslave thousands. But the people which survive the tragedy will introduced the Spanish to the many wonderful uses of rubber.

In Europe no one has ever seen anything like rubber, and people there will be full of questions about it, questions like...what is this stuff?

vall

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2021, 02:12:58 PM »
Good book about Fairchild and the plant material he sent back.

- Val

Mike T

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2021, 08:33:32 AM »
Wow even the dates are known and there is nothing quite like dating advice. They were brought to Australia in the 1800s along with camels.

Francis_Eric

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2021, 10:47:27 AM »
Thanks Vall Will check it out sometime If I can find it.
Quote
also Interesting young school kids with a Bunsen burner are able to learn,
 and make plastics like fishing string
wish my school was that good ! Finding that takes some exploring of the site.

Sorry some link on sites broke (Since I brought up will post.)
polymer science learning center

https://pslc.ws/index.htm

https://pslc.ws/macrog/index.htm
(for kids , and parents or teachers  ) https://pslc.ws/teacher.html
« Last Edit: June 26, 2021, 10:54:12 AM by Francis_Eric »

Francis_Eric

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2022, 05:10:29 PM »
Thanks Vall about did look into that Fairchild book
 (need to make a account to buy though and took break off computer)
Good book about Fairchild and the plant material he sent back.


Today I was reading some partial stories of Bread fruit Traveling
I cannot Imaging some of these stories ,
but see for yourself if you'd want kind of wild what they did.
(if didn't want to read it all even if  you'd skip to part 15 is where it is wild as well,)



https://treesthatfeed.org/programs/trees/historypage/







« Last Edit: January 23, 2022, 05:16:38 PM by Francis_Eric »

NateTheGreat

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Re: Good Story Of How the Date Came to America.
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2022, 07:19:24 PM »
Fairchild was also concerned about plant diseases from plants shipped to the US.  The Japanese sent the cherry trees that would be planted in Washington DC.  He found a lot of diseases, and the Japanese sent new & healthy trees to rectify the mistake.

According to the above-mentioned book on Fairchild, he had a pretty cavalier attitude about pests and diseases. A character the author made out to be an antagonist worked for the USDA and sparred with Fairchild over plant inspections. If I recall correctly he was the one who rejected the shipment of cherry blossom trees, which Fairchild was none-too-happy about. A lot of Fairchild's introductions were worthless, or ruined by poor collection practices. I think his main skill was at self-promotion and at finding wealthy benefactors to fund his trips, so he got to do plant collection work regardless of scientific qualifications. The author made the USDA inspector character out to be a xenophobe, likening him to someone who is anti-immigration, as opposed to Fairchild who recognized the inevitability of plant diseases and pests being introduced to the USA and didn't seem to care.

P.S. If you think Luther Burbank was a good/smart dude, read what he wrote about breeding humans: http://www.lutherburbankonline.com/V12-C5.html