SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 25 



culture of this very promising date on a commercial scale in Cali- 

 fornia within a reasonable time. 



THE SAIDY DATE AS A COMMERCIAL VARIETY. 



The superior quality of the Saidy dates was recognized by the 

 management of an English concern, The Corporation of Western 

 Egypt, which had established trading stores in Kharga and Dakhla 

 some years prior to 1913. They had packed the fruit in paper cartons 

 under the brand " Dakla Dates " (shown in PL XIV, Department 

 Bulletin 271) {22) and had shipped the bulk of the crop of one year 

 to England. The enterprise had failed to yield a profit, along with 

 all the other activities of this corporation, in this instance, the man- 

 agers claimed, owing to the extra cost of moving such packages by 

 the long camel transportation involved. 



In the native methods of packing as seen by the writer at Eashida, 

 the dates are gathered before becoming fully ripe and spread in the 

 sun in drying yards, often in the open court of their houses, for 

 several days, being occasionally turned. They were then packed in 

 bags braided from the date-leaf pinnae, holding about 160 rotls, or 

 pounds, each. (PI. V, Fig. 1.) After the dates were firmly pressed 

 into these bags, making a compact air-excluding mass, sealed b}^ the 

 slightly exuding sirup of the fruit, a circular piece of matting of the 

 same material as the bags was sewed on as a lid, and the dates were 

 ready for camel transportation, two balancing bags weighing 320 

 rotls constituting a load for a desert camel. As the oasis people own 

 very few camels, this traffic is chiefly in the hands of the Bedouins, 

 who are shrewd traders, largely obtaining the dates in exchange for 

 goods brought from the valley, thus loading their camels in both 

 directions and making a handsome profit on each transaction. 



Egypt, with more than 11,000,000 people to whom dates are a staple 

 article of food and only about 7,000,000 date palms, exports but few 

 dates, only a few hundred tons of the Amri variety, a large coarse 

 date produced in the eastern delta region, being sent to southern 

 Europe, and these are more than counterbalanced by the imports of 

 dates from Algeria and the Persian Gulf and by the dates brought 

 down the Nile from the Sudan. While a few trees of the Saidy 

 variety, from both the oases and the Nile Valley, have borne abun- 

 dantly at the Tempe, Ariz., garden, but little fruit has matured and 

 none has reached perfection (PI. IV, Fig. 2). So it was only when 

 trees came into bearing at tlie Mecca garden and their fruits were 

 cured, and packed by the same processes that had been developed for 

 the handling of the Deglet Noor that the splendid market qualities of 

 this new commercial variety were brought to light. 



The characteristics of this variety which promise for it such high 

 place among the few great market dates of the world are : 



(1) Its quality and flavor. It is a superior date which at once 

 commends itself to lovers of fine fruits. Size and appearance count 

 for little if on trial the quality is found wanting. It is rich in 

 sugar, so rich as to be even cloying to some persons, when freshly 

 packed, though greatly enjoyed hj others; but this cloying quality 

 disappears after the fruit has been packed a month or more. By 

 that time the flesh begins to take on a slightly granular character 



