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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Wtm BULLETIN No. 1125 tWf 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER 
February, 1923 
THE SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT: 
A VARIETY OF THE FIRST RANK ADAPTED TO COMMER- 
CIAL CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
By S. C. Mason, Arboriculturist, Office of Crop Physiology and Breeding 
Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Discovery of the commercial value of 
the Saidy variety of date 1 
Essential characters of a great com- 
mercial variety 2 
The principal commercial varieties of 
dates 2 
Character and early history of the Lib- 
yan oases, the home of the Saidy 
date 3 
Early Egyptian knowledge of the date 
palm S 
Accounts of oasis dates by modern 
travelers 6 
Pago. 
Quest for the " Wahi " date by the 
United States Department of Agri- 
culture, proving the identity of the 
•• Wahi," " Sewi." and Saidy dates 13 
Importations of the Saidy date under 
various names 15 
The Saidy date as a commercial va- 
riety 25 
Temperature requirements of the Saidy 
date 27 
Resistance of tee Saidy date to humid- 
ity and dew-point conditions 32 
Literature cited 34 
DISCOVERY OF THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE SAIDY VARIETY 
OF DATE. 
Of the hundreds of distinct varieties of the date palm recognized 
and propagated in the date-growing world scarcely a dozen have 
attained more than local importance and reputation, and of these 
only a few have attained commercial importance in Europe or 
America. 
The discovery, then, of the commercial possibilities and adapta- 
tion to southern California conditions of the Saidy variety of Ejrvpt 
marks a new era in date production in the United States/ 
This new candidate for commercial favor in our American date- 
growing regions has been known to European explorers of the 
oases of the Libyan Desert (Fig. 1) for more than a century under 
the name " Sayd " or " Saydeh," while accounts of the excellence of 
the dates of these oasis dependencies of Egypt and of the caravans 
which brought them to the Nile Valley reach back to very remote 
periods. Modern geographers and surveyors of the Libyan Desert 
8965—23 1 
