DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 31 



the quality is in no way impaired, and where not reached by weevils these dates 

 would sell as well as at Thanksgiving time. No variety has been tried that stood 

 the test better (PL XIV). 



The seeds are five-sixteenths of an inch to 1 inch in length, three-eighths of an 

 inch broad, smoothly rounded, the germ pore nearly central, the ventral furrow 

 narrow and shallow, the color close to "tawny olive" (R. XXIX). 



The fruits, packed in paper boxes and rather dry, averaged 35 to 40 to the pound. 

 The percentage of seed weight to the total weight of fruit is 11.6, a ratio too high to 

 mark this date as of absolutely first quality, yet with its other good qualities a great 

 deal can be allowed in this respect. 



These fruits ripen in the heat of the Libyan oases in October. Whether they will 

 find sufficient heat for their perfection in any portion of the United States outside of 

 the Salton Basin is perhaps doubtful. Temperature records of only one of these oases 

 have been kept. A record of seven years at Dakhleh (Table I), shows a mean annual 

 temperature of 74° F., which is slightly higher than that of Palm Springs, CaL; and 

 for the growing months of February to October, inclusive, a mean of 78.40° F. The 

 summation of heat units is about the same as that of Tuggurt (Tougourt) in Algeria 

 (table on p. 8), which suggests about the same temperature requirements as for the 

 Deglet Xoor. This indicates that this variety may be expected to reach maturity 

 in the United States only in the heat conditions afforded by the Salton Basin of 

 California or in the hot lower portion of the Colorado Valley from Needles to the 

 Mexican line. 



Thb variety, as seen by the writer, is the great export date of Khargeh and Dakhleh 

 oases, and Sheik Abu Bakr, of Dakhleh, is authority for the statement that it is the 

 chief date of the entire chain of oases of the Libyan Desert, from Siwah at the north- 

 west, which lies about 400 miles southwest of Cairo, through Baharieh, Farafreh, and 

 Dakhleh to Khargeh, the most southeasterly, lying 120 miles due west of Luxor. 1 



They have together an extreme north to south range of about 300 miles through a 

 practically rainless region of dry air and intense desert heat. Siwah is said to be 

 78 feet below sea level. The other oases of the chain lie at elevations ranging from 

 near sea level to three or four hundred feet above. Only Khargeh has railway con- 

 nection with the Nile Valley; from the other oases the dates reach the Nile Valley 

 by camel caravans commanded by Bedouin traders who buy the entire export crop 

 of the desert people at their gardens. 



The common occurrence of this date as the leading variety of the widely detached 

 oases, while it is unknown in the Nile A'alley, 2 suggests that they have had it in 

 ]>■ - '-i.ii a long time, perhaps dating back to a period when allegiance to the Egyp- 

 tian Government was not acknowledged and when communication was much more 

 bee and regular by the desert trails between the oases than that between the oases 

 and the Nile Valley. 



In the enumeration of the taxed date palms of Upper Egypt for 1907 the oasis of 

 arieh is credited with 98,996, Dakhleh with 106,344, and Kargeh with 65,521, or 

 a total of nearly 271,000 trees. Siwah and Farafreh are not reported. 



lV.ni observations in Kargeh and Dakhleh and from the crop seen coming in from 



rich, the writer is sati.-ficd lhat considerably more than half of the trees in these 



three oases arc of tlic Kaidy variety, so tltat a low estimate would give 150,000 or 



200,000 of these without including Siwah Oasis, where it is known to ho the chief tree. 



■ ah i ap p roxi mately 2.','- :w east of Greenwich and in 20" north latitude. Baharieh is crossed by the 

 meridian of 20" Bnd lie Ju t north Of 28 lal H Ude. Farafreh lie ; close to the intersect ion of I he meridian of 

 W and I he parallel of 27 D ll bleb lies aboul e<|uallv on either .vide or the meridian of j'.f and at about 



2.v 30' north latitude. Khargeh lies with it i greatest extent north and south about 30" 40' east and from 

 24" 30' to 2fl« north latitide (PI. [). 

 2 Unless the siwah of Oizeh Province prove i to be Identical, 



