[November, 1912. 



AN EGYPTIAN DATE PLANTATION. 



The Financial Aspect- 



The following is taken from an article by Sir H. Rider Haggard in a 

 recent issue of the London Times. We believe the Arab Proverb should 

 have been quoted as '■ The date palm, the queen of trees, must have her 

 feet in running water and her head in the burning sky." 



In April of the present year, whilst struggling back against a bitter 

 wind from Sakhara to the Pyramids, just about the spot where the 

 Sphinx comes into view, I observed on the further side of a low bank 

 lines of many small tent-like shelters made of the dried stalks of Indian 

 corn. At the time I wondered what was planted here which needed such 

 protection in that climate; but as the objects of my visit to Egypt were 

 archaeological, not agricultural, and I was almost as weary as the jackass 

 on which I rode, I did not stop to make inquiries. Some days later good 

 fortune threw me into the company of Mr. G. L. Bailey, the manager 

 of the farm known as the Pyramids Estates, and afterwards into that 

 of Mr. F. Formby Back, the owner ot the Egyptian Gazette, who is its 

 principal proprietor. Under the guidance of these gentlemen I made two 

 visits to this farm, which proved to be the same that I had passed upon 

 my ride. What I saw there was to my mind so remarkable that I 

 propose to give some account of it to the readers of The Times. 



Pyramids Estates- 



The property which is about ten miles from Cairo, covers 750 feddans, 

 or, say, 800 acres of land, and lies in a long strip on the very edge of the 

 desert. Its level is such that it can be irrigated during the Nile flood, and 

 thus it annually receives the fertilizing deposit that is the source of 

 Egypt's wealth. Moreover, beneath its unpromising and sandy surface — 

 for until a few years ago it was desert such as that without the bank — 

 are ample supplies of good water, the infiltration from the Nile. On 

 every two acres of the laud, or rather of that portion of it which is de- 

 voted to the cultivation of date palms, is a well about 30 ft. in depth, 

 fitted with a pump and a cement tank. Also there are three artesian 

 wells sunk at convenient spots upon the property and equipped with 

 powerful steam machinery, From these water can be delivered at the 

 rate of 072,000 gallons per hour into cemented channels of which a length 

 of nearly five miles has already been constructed on the property. The 

 proprietors, are directing their attention to a more permanent return 

 than is furnished by annual crops— namely, to dates, the "bread cf 

 Egypt," and the staple food of its population. 



Conditions of Date Cultivation. 



The date-palm can only be sucessfully cultivated under certain as- 

 certained conditions. Thus, in the words of the Arabic saying, its feet 

 must be in the water and its head in the sun. The roots need a constant 

 supply of underground moisture and the crown should enjoy continual 

 and scorching sunlight. Also it prefers a sandy soil, for which reason it 

 does not bear so well in the clay of the Delta, or so I am informed. There is 

 no disease which hurts the date, except that occasioned by an abnormal 

 rainfall while the fruit is setting, an accident which has never been known 

 to happen in this part of Egypt. Damp on its foliage is its great enemy, 

 and therefore I belive it will not thrive in Ceylon and other places where 

 the coconut flourishes, 



