308 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



OCTOBEK 2, 1909. 



FRUIT. 



MELONS AND OTHER RELATED 



FRUITS IN EGYPT. 



Melons, cucumbers, vegetable marrows, pumpkins, 

 vegetable sponges and the Iruits of the calabash gourd 

 are all grown to a great extent in Egypt, and their 

 production and marketing are a source of industry to 

 a large proportion of the inhabitants. The cultivation 

 of these under the peculiar conditions of agriculture in 

 Egypt is an interesting subject, and is treated of in the 

 Journal dfthc lluijal Ilurticidtaral Socicti/, July 1909, 

 from which the following is an abstract : — 



The kind of sweet melon most commonly grown is known 

 in Arabic as ' Shannnam ' (C'«r«n»« Budaiin afi/i/jitincn). 

 The best varieties of this plant require a fairly heavy soil and 

 to be protected from the direct rays of the sun; it bears 

 a fruit with a greenish-white, melting and sweet tlesh. Of 

 the varieties belonging to CiicKinis Mdo, the best known is 

 the ' quaoon santaony ', which conies into the market later 

 than the ' Shamniam '. It is small, globular and strongly 

 scented, and the yellow skin is somewhat deeply farrowc<l, 

 with a close network of raised lines ; the Hesh is thin, light- 

 orange coloured and very juicy. This variety is grown in 

 the Delta, while a similar one is produced in Upper Egypt. 

 In the last-mentioned region, there is also grown a smooth 

 skinned lemon, globular in form and without furrows ; the 

 flesh of this is white, thick and very sweet, in a fruit having 

 an average weight of about 81b. Apart from these, the 

 most remarkable fruit of the kind in Egypt is the one known 

 as ' agour ' (C. Main (Jltntc), which is oval but tapers to 

 a point at each end, the length being about 10 inches. The 

 skin is reddish-brown and covered wdtli a close network of 

 raised lines ; the thin orange-coloured, juicy fle.sh is eaten 

 with .sugar, as it i.-i not sweet, and coming at a time when 

 other market fruits are very scarce, is much apijrcciatcd 

 among the natives. Several other kinds of melons, which 

 are, however, inferior to these, are also produced. 



In Egypt, melons are grown largely on the light loam 

 found on the islands and the banks of the Nile when the river 

 is low. The following is the system of cultivation practised. 

 Trenches running in a tran.sverso direction to the prevailing 

 wind are dug in the silt bordering the water. The trenches 

 arc made 8 inches wide, 1 foot deep and ."i feet apart. A layer 

 of decayed pigeon manure is placed in the bottom of the 

 trenches, which are then refilled with soil. Farmyard man- 

 ure is used where pigeon dung is not available, but does not 

 give such good results. The seed is soaked in water and 

 germinated before sowing. It is then sown in holes about IG 

 inches apart, and a row of maize-stalks is fi.\ed in the soil by 



the side of each trench, in such a manner that the maize 

 leans over the young plants and protects them from the wind, 

 while leaving them e.xposed lo the .sun. AVhere there is 

 a danger of the plants being covered with drifting .sand, low 

 barriers are constructed around the plots. Four or five .seeds 

 are sown in each hole, but when the seedlings have attained 

 three or four leaves they are thinned so as to leave one 

 plant only. During the growth of the crop, the soil is hoed 

 to keep it moist and loose. When the fruit begins to appear, 

 the maize-stalks are removed and a second trench is often 

 dug parallel with, and close to, that in which the plants are 

 growing. This is filled with manure and soil in the same way 

 as the first, and forms an additional supply of food for the 

 plants. The best fruit on each plant is allowed to remain, 

 the others being removed when small. These small fruits 

 are in the case of the 'Hhaminan ' known as ' sirt ' and in the 

 case of the ' agour ' they are called ' hersh '. They are 

 eaten in the same way as cucumbers, but are in much greater 

 demand and bring better prices than the latter. The 

 ' Shannnam ' is grown almost always as a river crop. As 

 the roots descend 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches into the soil, the 

 water-level is sutficiently near the surface to enable the 

 plants to grow without irrigation. The 'quaoon santaouy ', 

 on the other hand, is cultivated chietty on the high sandy 

 lands on the edge of the desert, in which situations it is, of 

 course, necessary to water the plants. The preparation of 

 the ground, however, is the same. The ' agour ' rcciuires 

 a more compact .soil than those just mentioned, and is there- 

 fore grown chicHy on basin lands which have been fiooded 

 during the previous autumn. In this case the seed is sown 

 on the edge of a shallow furrow, and the manure applied 

 when the .seedlings have f(.'Ur or five leaves. Water melons 

 are cultivated in the same way as sweet melons. They can, 

 however, be grown on much poorer ground than the 

 ' Slianunam ', and in. situations where the .sand is too loose 

 for the ' Santaouy '. 



The water melon is a very important crop, and is sown 

 in large areas, both on the river banks and inland. The 

 number of varieties of rcd-fieshed water melons is large, but 

 many of them are inot well defined, intermediate forms 

 making classification difficult. An attenqit to do some- 

 thing in this rcsi^ect was made last year by the Horticultural 

 Society, by collecting and comi)aring fruits from various 

 l);.'rts of the country. It was, however, found that it would 

 be necessary to cultivate all the varieties together on the 

 same soil for one or more years, in order to arrive at definite 

 conclusions. 



The cucumbers are also of importance in Egypt: the 

 chief ones are the ordinary variety (Cvcimiis saiious), tha 

 snake cucumber (C. ilcxnosits), and the hairy cucumber 



