THE DATE PALM 



can be seen scooping up the cofFee-coloured water of the 

 Nile and pouring it on the land for the magnificent sum of 

 one piastre a day. 



Where not irrigated, the soil is dry and parched and can 

 only carry a few miserable little thorny bushes. The entire 

 absence of grass on the brick-like soil has a very strange 

 effect to English eyes. 



The Date Palm, however, requires a little respectful con- 

 sideration. If one enters a thick grove and looks upwards, 

 the idea of Egyptian architecture as distinguished from 

 Gothic and others is at once visible. It has quite the same 

 effect as the great hall of columns near Luxor. The 

 numerous stems ending in the crown at the top where the 

 leaves spring off was quite clearly in the minds of the 

 architect at Karnak and other temples. It goes on bearing 

 its fruits for some two hundred years, and begins to yield 

 when only seven years old. It revels in a hot, dry climate 

 with its roots in water, and seems to require scarcely any 

 care in cultivation. Yet during the first few years of its life 

 it is necessary to water the seedling. A single tree may 

 give eight to ten bunches of dates worth about six shillings. 

 Generally it is reproduced by the suckers which spring out 

 from the base of the tree. 



Dates make a very excellent food, not merely pleasant 

 but both wholesome and nutritious. Sometimes toddy is 

 made by fermenting the sap, but this is a very wasteful 

 process, as it is apt to kill the tree. 



The stones are often ground up to make food for camels. 

 The feathery leaves are exceedingly graceful. When quite 

 young they are not divided, but they split down to the main 

 stalk along the folds, so that a full-grown leaf affords but 

 little hold to the wind. 



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