Download Fragment

Thursday, 4 August 1921

Senator COX (New South Wales) . - I have listened to this discussion with great interest. I happen to have been in the part of the world where dates are chiefly grown, and I understand from reliable people there that trees will bear in ten or twelve years at the very outside ; in fact, I have seen the fruit growing on very small trees. Of course, dates are grown for commercial purposes in Egypt, Palestine, and the Sinai Desert, and they are a very valuable product. In that part of the world the tree has to be artificially fertilized.

Senator Crawford - Artificial fertilization is a common practice-

Senator COX - Is that the practice adopted in Queensland?

Senator Lynch - Tell us something of the commercial aspect of the proposition.

Senator COX - Senator Lynch has told us that in the tropical desert part of Western Australia bananas cannot be grown, and I advise him to plant a few date trees there, and have them fertilized, when he will soon see a fine industry develop.

---