20 BULLETIN 1125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
are picked before they are fully ripe and are dried in the sun on a hard earthen 
floor, or the floor may be spread with a thin layer of date leaves. The first 
quality of fruit ripens to a color near "hazel" (R. XIV) or "tawny" (R. 
XV), but it is semitransparent except the basal portion, which is often opaque 
and of a "honey yellow" or "chamois" color (R. XXX). Fruits of a very 
good quality may be considerably darker, close to "bay" or "chestnut" (R. 
II), but either class held against the light will show the seed through the 
flesh quite plainly. The skin is very thin and transparent, and the outer por- 
tion of the flesh is of the same shades given for the outside appearance, while 
the inner flesh is considerably lighter. In good " agwa " that has been packed 
several months the outside of the fruit is shiny, as though dipped in a sugar 
sirup, and is a little sticky. 
The flesh is less sticky than the outside and a good deal granular. The 
flavor is a rich sugary sweet, with a suggestion of caramel, and very agreeable. 
The seeds, large for the size of the fruit, are about three-fourths of an inch 
to 1 inch long, three-eighths of an inch broad, roundish in cross section, and 
may be called oblong oval in form, a little broader in the middle and with 
broadly rounded ends. The germ pore is about central, the ventral surface a 
little corrugated, the furrow narrow and shallow. The color' is close to " wood 
brown" (R. XL). 
When sufficiently cured the dates are packed solidly into strong, deep, cir- 
cular baskets made from the braid of date-leaf pinna 1 sewed spirally, and a 
cover of the same material is stitched closely on. The whole mass thus inclosed 
becomes sealed with the exuding sirup of the sticky dates and is practically air- 
tight. If cleanly and sanitary methods could be followed, there is no doubt 
that this method of packing is an excellent one, and there is reason to believe 
that a curing process goes on in the mass which gives a flavor and texture of 
flesh not secured when the individual dates are packed in their natural shape 
in paper cartons without compressing and so exposed to the air. 
The rather large seed is all that prevents this date from being classed as a 
strictly first-class variety, judged by its actual merits as a date. That the prod- 
uct that goes on the market is not above third class needs only a view of it in 
the market stalls to prove. One has but to see the yards and the curing and 
packing in progress to be convinced that such a product is the only possible 
result of the antiquated and filthy, not to mention insanitary, methods em- 
ployed. Dried on the bare, dust-covered ground or on a floor thinly spread 
with date leaves, covered with flies, swept with the dust of passing traffic, 
finally tramped with the naked feet into' the huge date-leaf sacks, the writer 
was not surprised to learn that the wholesale price realized for these dates 
by the grower is only about 4 or 5 milliemes to the rotl, the equivalent of 2 or 
2\ cents per pound. 
In December the retail price of the Siwah in the native markets of Cairo was 
1 piaster per rotl, while at the same time in the best fruit and provision 
stores, patronized by European customers, there was an active trade in the 
Algerian Deglet Noor, in fancy packages labeled " Dattes Muscades," at prices 
the equivalent of 5 piasters per rotl. From samples of Siwah dates obtained 
from private sources, carefully selected and packed for home use, the writer 
is convinced that the first quality of dates, packed in a modern and attractive 
way, would be competitors with the Algerian dates on at least an equal footing 
and would be the choice of many people of refined taste. Of course, not all 
of the Siwah crop could be converted into a first-class pack under the best 
of conditions, but a sufficiently large proportion, with proper methods, could 
be brought up to the first quality to make the difference in price between 1 
piaster and 5 piasters per rotl run into a good many thousand pounds sterling 
for a year's output. What the French in Algeria and Tunis have done to 
improve the date output of those countries, what is recently being done with 
the dates of the Persian Gulf region, ought not to be beyond accomplishment 
for Egypt with such dates as the Siwah and the Saidy for a foundation. 
A question of nomenclature comes in here which is rather typical of the 
whole date situation in Egypt, and arises from the habit of the people of giving 
to a date the name of the locality from which it is brought, as " Wahi " for 
any date from the oases, " Yemeny " for dates from the Yemen district of 
Arabia, etc. 
In the shipment of date offshoots received by Mr. Fairchild in 1901. through 
Em. C. Zervudachi, of Alexandria, one lot. given the S. P. I. No. 7632, was 
labeled " Oga de Bedrichen " and in some of the lists this name became trans- 
formed into " Oga de Bedreschen." Two trees under the above number and 
