722 
THE Tropical agriculturist. 
[May 1, 1902. 
THE DATE TREE. 
A writer 50 years ago stated that the date tree waa 
the only tree whose cultivation was not neglected in 
Egypt. It might truthfully be said now that it is 
more neglected than any other tree. Tha cause is 
obviously due to the introduction of other staple foods, 
formerly unknown or rare, such as maize, beans, sugar 
cane, and many vegetables, especially the tomato and 
onion. Bread is now very cheap and the poorest 
beggar can buy it, European immigration has directly 
.brought about the bettering of the lower and working 
classes and wages have gone up in many cases twenty- 
fold. The Beiberee, especially, who formerly con- 
sidered himself quite wealthy with the possession of 
a hundred date trees, now assesses thsir yearly profit 
at as many shillings, and finding the comparison 
between £5 per year and the wages and food received 
by his relations as cooka, bowabs, servants, etc.. in 
Cairo, very unsatisfactory for himself, leaves his date 
trees to his wives and fathers-in-law and seeks work 
in the large towns. The characteristic national love 
of economy of effort has also greatly contiibuted to 
the neglect. 
It is very interesting to read of the incidents which 
attended the introduction of many parent trees into 
this country. Rich and notable sheikhs made it a 
rule to bring back, if possible, on tlieir return from 
the pilgrimage to Mecca, a young dale tree taken 
from the base of some good tree en route. The usual 
chapter of accidents, as well as the ordinary mishaps, 
such as disease, plague, highway robbery, want of food 
and the death of the camel or the tree on the way, 
reduced the number of trees successfully introduced 
to a minimum. The species generally received either 
the name of the sheikh or the place of origin, It is 
probably owing to this custom that whilst there are 
only about 22 different varieties of date palms in Egypt 
the trees comprising them have about 250 different 
names. Of late the pride taken in their cultivation 
and the feelings almost of veneration for them have 
died away. The five commonest species grown in 
Egypt and the Soudan are probably ; the Bedreshin, 
Cairo, Rasheet, Rasson Wadi, and the Fayoum date 
trees. The Bedreshin tree is very common, fruitful, 
and very high ; its fruit is good and is ready about 
September. The Easheet, largely grown in the Delta, 
is about half as high, has spreading leaves, and its 
fruit is large and lime-shaped and is not ready until 
the winter. The Cairo tree is also a smaller one and 
has smaller but sweeter fruit. The Rassan Wadi is 
said to have been brought from Arabia by a Moudir of 
Z igazig. It is like the Bedreshin dute but has inferior 
fruit. The Fayoum is a smaller variety, has many 
spreading leaves, and its fruit is thin but very sweet. 
Some dates are only fit to dry, others to press, and 
others again to be eaten fresh. To cater for the 
native requirements is altogether unnecessary, for not 
only do these trees yield their supplies for local con- 
sumption but several hundred tons of inferior dates 
valued at about £7 per ton are imported yearly from 
Turkey. An adequate liuanoial return for trouble 
and expense can easily be gained in Egypt by all 
cultivators who will extend and grow the better kinds 
of date. The Basha or Vanille date tree, the Sultani, 
and the Rasheet are excellent varieties and pay well. 
That superior fruit gives best returns can be seen by 
reference to the reports of the British Chamber 
of Oommeroe of Egypt, which give the annunl 
average export of dates from Egypt for fifteen years 
aa 645 tons, valued at about £18 per ton. For 1899 
and 1900 the value was only £16 per ton, md yet the 
superior quality of Tunisian dates of the best kind im- 
ported waa valued at neaily £32 per to:<., " nea^ ly 
double the price'? 
From one or iv> o important grocers in Ciiro it liai 
been learnn'l that a (irfek merchant has taken the 
trouble during the last two seasons to buy and neatly 
pack in 8-oke boxes some of the best and largt st 
datoB, which he has supplied to the grocers for sale 
at the retail price of 5 piastres per oke. List year 
he only put on the market about half a ton, but all 
were very quickly sold. This year he has been able 
to procure about 4 tons and has alreariy disposed of 
them ail. This should be extremely encouraging to 
those who intend growing good trees. A few ye irs 
ago Eogland had only the boxes of pressed dates sold 
retail by street-hawkers on trucks at about 21. per lb 
and by grocers at perhaps a penny moie. Imme- 
diately the import of dates in fancy hilf-pjund 
and pound cardboard boxes from Algeria began, 
fruiterert, although at first over-cautious because of 
the price, found the sale quite easy and the dera ind 
increased enormously. Now, on account of their good 
appearance and superior flavour, they are becoming 
generally popular even with the middle classes, iluch 
of this trade could be captured by cultivators in 
Egypt, for in no other country of the world is the 
climate so suitable for the date. Other products of 
the fruit and the tree might also be supplied, espe- 
cially vinegar (similiar but superior to that mside by 
the fellaheen), wine, preserve, brandy, and braoms. 
There are many faults committed in the cultivation 
of the date palm in Egypt. Not only is w i ier n. 
necessity, but manure also, and so many of thj trees 
which do not bear cannot do so simply because the 
roots hive taken from the ground all avdilable 
nourishment. The bases of the trees also are yearly 
left more exposed owing to the contact of the water. 
A good grower sets his young trees in a trench whicix 
is gradually filled up with fertilisers or good soil. 
The roots should never appear as they do almost 
everywhere in Egypt in old trees. Another serious 
fault, sometimes causing the same effect, is the Wint 
of suflBcient root space. Cases could be mentioned 
where Arabs have taken the trouble to dig in the hard 
rock •' with a pick-axe holes ab mt three-quarters of a 
metre square, and set in these young young date- 
trees. On the premature death of these trees after 
an initiatory growth of promise they would probably 
sum up the cause by the ejaculation, ■' Wallah " — It 
is the will of God. Where the roots encounter re- 
sistance of the subsoil they will often push the tree 
out of the ground for several feet, and this is by no 
means an uncommon sight. Thinning fruit 
in its earliest stage is often very necessary. Natives 
generally allow it to fall but each frnit has robbed 
the tree of a certain amount of nourishment which 
might have been given to the remaining dates. Not 
many growers are willing to understand that 30 okes 
of large fine dates will bring in three times as 
much money as the same weight of small and ordi- 
ijary ones. Yet many trees properly cared for can, 
and do, produced fruit as large as lemons or bana- 
nas if thinned in the same way as we thin grapes in 
our English vine-houses. 
Young trees should be taken from the bases of the 
best varieties when 7 to 10 years old They should 
be set in trenches about a metre wide where there 
is plenty of good surface soil. They should be put 
in the ground up to the leaves, which should be 
wrapped round with matting or straw. This favours 
the growth of the roots. Care should be taken to 
provide free exit for the new leaves at the stem. 
They should begin to bear frnit in three years end 
be in full bearing in 10 years. Trees grown from 
kernels are more healthy and vigorous and m 
live for 200 years. They are however a very long 
time growing to maturity and it is impassible to tell 
before flowering whether they are male os- female, 
The yonng shoots at the stems, on tha other hand, 
are always of the same sex as the parent. As the 
tress get old the lower pars of tha funks are in- 
clined to become stony and the sap is unable to flow 
through them ei-.sily. It is well in such cases to apply 
a finidserin which nitrogen and phosphates predo- 
minate ; the former to accelerate tlie ra^vemant of the 
sap, the second to promote the formation of new cells, 
and new tissues, and to facilitate flowering and fruoti 
