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Show Dr. Joseph Walker Sends Dates and Letter Giving Interesting Information About Their History One of the interesting gift packages pack-ages reported over Christmas was a flat of "Star Choice' dates, which came to Mrs. Arthur F. Miles from the farm in Coachilla Valley, California, owned by her brother, Dr. Joseph Walker and wife of Hollywood. The date is the Deglet Noor, the best date grown in the world, states the Doctor in a letter accompanying the package, as he tells of the slow growth, difficult process of i polonization, the harvesting, and 1 , packing of this fruit which Omar I fed upon. I Unique in his recounting of the long history of dates, Dr. Walker calls attention to the fact that though Jerusalem and Jerico were famous- centers of date produc tion, and Tamera (meaning date)' a favorite name for Jewish maidens, maid-ens, the word "date" does not appear ap-pear in the entire script of the Bible, "a book written by what he terms "date eaters". Nor is the word found in the great Koran. It seems the Doctor has been the first to make this discovery in his research study of the date palm, which the Smithsonian Institute In-stitute claims is the most important import-ant tree in the history of man. His letter is an interesting treatise trea-tise on the date culture and tells inimately of his joy as a date producer. This is the first year their date palms have produced in any vol-(Continued vol-(Continued on page eight) Dr. Walker's Dates (Continued from first page) ume and the Walkers have shipped- dates to nearly every state in the Union, to Canada, New Foundland and England, and have sold their entire crop at retail prices, which the Doctor "opines, "is not so bad for a couple of greenhorn farmers", as he refers to himself and Mrs. Walker. Busy physician and surgeon of Hollywood, Holly-wood, he takes great pleasure in his outdoor activity, recalling the hardships under which farming was done in Dixie when he was a boy, and looking forward to the time when he may be able to spend more time at this favorite occupation. "Farming", he says, "is not all a happy thing, but it keeps one humble, hopeful, healthy, heal-thy, .'Mocked' and anti-ocial". He senses this as the crying need of the world today.- Referring in the same letter to Maurine Whipple's book, "Giant Joshua", he lauds this young Dixie writer as one of the greatest great-est friends this section has ever had, paying tribute to her skill in composition, and states, "The girl has re-created the life of the Sixties with a truthfulness and sympathy and understanding as never has been done before by anyone in Utah." He predicts a great future for book and author. |