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 Valle}^ 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 conclusions. 
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. Jn 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 
necessary 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. 
Xo records ha\^e 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 ; 
