SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 27 



territory, where the ^^ Sewi^^ is grown, compared with the scant 

 supply from failing artesian wells received by many Saidy gardens 

 in the oases, may in part account for the difference in the yields 

 reported. It should also be remembered that the Saidy reports from 

 the oases are mere hearsay, as compared with definite weight records 

 for one year at Gizeh Province. 



(5) Ease of propagation. The Saidy has been found prolific in 

 offshoots, both in the Libyan Desert at Kharga and Dakhla, and in 

 the Nile Valley in upper Gizeh. It produces offshoots abundantly, 

 20 or more to the tree, in the heavy adobe soil with high ground water 

 and the limit of alkali at the Tempe, Ariz., garden and in the rather 

 sterile beach sand at the garden at Mecca, Calif. Two thousand 

 offshoots, cut and packed in Egypt in May and June, 1920, endured 

 the long transit to Indio, Calif., remarkably well. 



This variety promises to be prolific and reliable in the hands of 

 the careful propagator, thus rounding out the list of characters 

 essential to a great commercial date variety. 



TEMPERATURE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SAIDY DATE. 



. Our knowledge of the temperature requirements of the Saidy date 

 is not as clear as could be desired, owing to the lack of weather records 

 adequately covering the territory where it is grown, but enough data 

 are available to afford a basis for some fairly definite conclusiions. 

 Egyptian records of the Dakhla Oasis, the home of the Saidy, may 

 be compared with the records at Heluan and Gizeh, approximating 

 the temperature of the Nile Valley district. In the United States 

 carefully kept 10-year records at the Mecca garden are available for 

 comparison with equally careful records of the Tempe garden, where 

 this date has failed to mature. 



The only record representing the five Libyan oases is that kept by 

 an Egyptian observer stationed at Mut, the capital town of the 

 Dakhla Oasis, and from the internal evidence of these records as 

 published in the reports of the Egyptian ministry of finance some 

 doubt may be permitted as to their entire accuracy. Moreover, while 

 the Dakhla records may fairly represent Kharga, also in nearly the 

 same latitude, they must be considerably too high for Baharia, situ- 

 ated nearly 200 miles farther north, and especially high for Siwa 

 Oasis, which lies fully 4° of latitude north of Dakhla. Calculated 

 from the gradation of mean temperatures according to official records, 

 from Abbassia to Merowe in Sudan, which show an approximate gain 

 of 1° F. in mean temperature for each degree of latitude, we may ex- 

 pect Baharia and Siwa to have about 3° F. lower means than Dakhla 

 and Kharga. As Baharia is one of the best producing localities for 

 the Saidy date, we may safely conclude that the mean temperatures at 

 Dakhla and Kharga are at least 3° or 4° F. higher than are actually 

 necessarj^ for the safe maturing of this variety. Siwa Oasis, 1 degree 

 farther north than Baharia, has doubtless a slightly cooler climate 

 and is known to produce excellent Saidy dates. 



No records have been kept within the area occupied by the Saidy 

 date in upper Gizeh Province, the nearest available being those of 

 the Gizeh post office and of Heluan, across the river from Bedrashen. 

 Gizeh may closely approximate the temperatures of the points in the 

 lower valley lands near the river, as Abu el Nemrus and Hawamdia ; 



