20 BULLETIN 1125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



are picked before they are fully ripe and are dried in the sun on a hard earthen 

 floor, or the floor may be spread with a thin layer of date leaves. The first 

 quality of fruit ripens to a color near "hazel" (R. XIV) or " tawny " (R. 

 XV), but it is semitransparent except the basal portion, which is often opaqiie 

 and of a "honey yellow" or "chamois" color (R. XXX). Fruits of a very 

 good quality may be considerably darker, close to "bay" or "chestnut" (R. 

 II), but either class held against the light will show the seed through the 

 flesh quite plainly. The skin is very thin and transparent, and the outer por- 

 tion of the flesh is of the same shacles given for the outside appearance, v/hile 

 the inner flesh is considerably lighter. In good " agwa " that has been packed 

 several months the outside of the fruit is shiny, as though dipped in a sugar 

 sirup, and is a little sticky. 



The flesh is less sticky than the outside and a good deal granular. The 

 flavor is a rich sugary sweet, with a suggestion of caramel, and very agreeable. 



The seeds, large for the size of the fruit, are about three-fourths of an inch 

 to 1 inch long, three-eighths of an inch broad, roundish in cross section, and 

 may be called oblong oval in form, a little broader in the middle and with 

 broadly i-ounded ends. The germ pore is about central, the ventral surface a 

 little corrugated, the furrow narrow and shallow. The color is close to " wood 

 brown" (R. XL). 



When sufficiently cured the dates are packed solidly into strong, deep, cir- 

 cular baskets made from the braid of date-leaf pinnae sewed spirally, and a 

 cover of the same material is stitched closely on. The whole mass thus inclosed 

 becomes sealed with the exuding sirup of the sticky dates and is practically air- 

 tight. If cleanly and sanitary methods could be followed, there is no doubt 

 that this m,^thod of packing is an excellent one, and there is reason to believe 

 that a curing process goes on in the mass which gives a flavor and texture of 

 flesh not secured when the individual dates are packed in their natural shape 

 in paper cartons without compressing and so exposed to the air. 



The rather large seed is all that prevents this date from being classed as a 

 strictly first-class variety, judged by its actual merits as a date. That the prod- 

 uct that goes on the market is not above third class needs only a view of it in 

 the market stalls to prove. One has but to see the yards and the curing and 

 packing in progress to be convinced that such a product is the only possible 

 result of the antiquated and filthy, not to mention insanitary, methods em- 

 ployed. Dried on the bare, dust-covered ground or on a floor thinly spread 

 with date leaves, covered with flies, swept with the dust of passing traffic, 

 finally tramped with the naked feet into the huge date-leaf sacks, the writer 

 was not surprised to learn that the wholesale price realized for these dates 

 by the grower is only about 4 or 5 millidmes to the rotl, the equivalent of 2 or 

 2i cents per pound. 



In December the retail price of the Siwah in the native markets of Cairo was 

 1 piaster per rotl, while at the same time in the best fruit and provision 

 stores, patronized by European customers, there was an active trade in the 

 Algerian Deglet Noor, in fancy packages labeled " Dattes Muscades," at prices 

 the equivalent of 5 piasters per rotl. From samples of Siwah dates obtained 

 from private sources, carefully selected and packed for home use, the writer 

 is convinced that the first quality of dates, packed in a modern and attractive 

 way, would be competitors with the Algerian dates on at least an equal footing^ 

 and would be the choice of many people of refined taste. Of course, not all 

 of the Siwah crop could be converted into a first-class pack under the best 

 of conditions, but a sufficiently large proportion, with proper methods, could 

 be brought up to the first quality to make the difference in price between 1 

 piaster and 5 piasters per rotl run into a good many thousand pounds sterling 

 for a year's output. What the French in Algeria and Tunis have done to 

 improve the date output of those countries, what is recently being done with 

 the dates of the Persian Gulf region, ought not to be beyond accomplishment 

 for Egypt with such dates as the Siwah and the Saidy for a foundation. 



A question of nomenclature comes in here which is rather typical of the 

 whole date situation in Egypt, and arises from the habit of the people of giving 

 to a date the name of the locality from which it is brought, as " Wahi " for 

 any date from the oases, " Yemeny " for dates from the Yemen district of 

 Arabia, etc. 



In the shipment of date offshoots received by Mr. Fairchild in 1901. through 

 Em. C. Zervudachi, of Alexandria, one lot, given the S. P. I. No. 7632. was 

 labeled " Oga de Bedrichen " and in some of the lists this name became trans- 

 formed into " Oga de Bedreschen." Two trees under the above number and 



