14 



BULLETIN 1125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUKE. 



As a matter of fact, Mr. Rankin was closely questioned by Mr. 

 Fairchild on this point, as is shown by the following extract from his 

 letter of April 15, 1904: 



W. T. Swingle, who has been making a special study of tlie date palm, sends 

 me the following notes regarding the dates reported from the oase» east of 

 Fayuni (copy of notes not attached). 



They would seem to indicate that the date under the name of " Saydeh " is 

 the best date which occurs in the Oasis Baharieh, and it is important to deter- 

 mine whether the Wahi date, which is said to come from Siwah, really occurs 

 in the Oasis of Baharieh or if the " Saydeh " is not the sort which really comes 

 to the Fayum and is called by the Arabs " Wahi." Should arrangements be 

 made for you to make the trip to these different oases, we would want suckers 

 of this " Saydeh " date. 



An article on the date palm by Fletcher {IJt) in the Agricultural 

 Ledger, Calcutta, 1906, concludes with a table of " well-known 

 varieties of dates" in which appears among others the "Wahi, or 

 Sewi," from the " Seewah Oasis " of Egypt : 



Class. 



Country. 



Center. 



Name of 

 variety. 



Date of 

 ripening. 



Soil re- 

 quire- 

 ments. 



Market. 



Character of 

 fruit. 



1. Soft.... 



Egypt... 



Seewah 

 Oasis. 



WaM,orSewi... 



August.. 



Sandy.. . 



Fayum, 

 Egypt. 



Plump and 

 yellow. 



Fletcher had before him Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 53 

 and credits Swingle (S7) with giving considerable material. The 

 source of this combination "Wahi, or Sewi," is difficult to guess. 

 None of the writers who had visited the oasis had noted any variety 

 called "Sewi." Only Delchevalerie {10)^ who was not an explorer, 

 had mentioned " Balah Syouy " from " oasis de Syoua." 



We find Foaden and Fletcher {15) listing 10 leading varieties of 

 Egyptian dates, and the " Sewi " is again credited to " Sewa Oasis," 

 as follows : 



(4) Sewi, which as its name indicates, is largely cultivated in the Siwa 

 Oasis, is a comparatively short but thick and yellow date. The ripe fruit is 

 usually pounded and kneaded together into a kind of paste or cake known 

 as "Agoua." The finest sorts are preserved in small skin bags, the stones 

 being first removed, while the common sorts are kept in bags made of date 

 leaves. It is thus largely used as food during the whole year and constitutes 

 one of the chief articles of food among the poorer classes. 



The foregoing rather indefinite description might apply equally 

 weU to dates from the oases (the Saidy) or to that found in upper 

 Gizeh which has till now been known as the " Sewi." That the 

 " Sewi " of Gizeh Province, orchards of which were actually in sight 

 of the School of Agriculture at Gizeh, of which this author was prin- 

 cipal, should have been completely overlooked seems rather aston- 

 ishing, although in justice to Mr. Fletcher we must add that " Chap- 

 ter XIII, Fruits," is credited to G. Bonaparte (4). 



Beadnell (-5), formerly of the Geological Survey of Egypt, gives 

 the following account of the " Saidi " date : 



In Egypt there are about 50 varieties of date palm, the chief kinds in Kharga 

 Oasis being the Saidi, Tamar, Falig, and Hamrawi, The Saidi dates of the 

 oasis are generally considered to be superior in flavor to almost any other 

 Egyptian variety and have in consequence a ready sale in the Nile Valley. The 

 other varieties are not exported to any great extent, except, perhaps, the Falig ; 



