DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. ol 
the quality is in no way impaired, and where not reached by weevils these dates 
-would sell as well as at Thanksgiving time. No variety has been tried that stood 
the test better (Pl. XIV). 
The seeds are five-sixteenths of an inch to 1 inch in length, three-eighths of an 
‘inch broad, smoothly rounded, the germ pore nearly central, the ventral furrow 
narrow and shallow, the color close to “tawny olive’”’ (R. X XIX). 
The fruits, packed in paper boxes and rather dry, averaged 35 to 40 to the pound. 
The percentage of seed weight to the total weight of fruit is 11.6, a ratio too high to 
mark this date as of absolutely first quality, yet with its other good qualities a great 
deal can be allowed in this respect. 
These fruits ripen in the heat of the Libyan oases in October. Whether they will 
find sufficient heat for their perfection in any portion of the United States outside of 
the Salton Basin is perhaps doubtful. Temperature records of only one of these oases 
have been kept. A record of seven years at Dakhleh (Table I), shows a mean annual 
temperature of 74° F., which is slightly higher than that of Palm Springs, Cal.; and 
for the growing months of February to October, inclusive, a mean of 78.40° F. The 
summation of heat units is about the same as that of Tuggurt (Tougourt) in Algeria 
(table on p. 8), which suggests about the same temperature requirements as for the 
Deglet Noor. This indicates that this variety may be expected to reach maturity 
in the United States only in the heat conditions afforded by the Salton Basin of 
California or in the hot lower portion of the Colorado Valley from Needles to the 
Mexican line. 
This variety, as seen by the writer, is the great export date of Khargeh and Dakhleh 
oases, and Sheik Abu Bakr, of Dakhleh, is authority for the statement that it is the 
chief date of the entire chain of oases of the Libyan Desert, from Siwah at the north- 
west, which les about 400 miles southwest of Cairo, through Baharieh, Farafreh, and 
Dakhleh to Khargeh, the most southeasterly, lying 120 miles due west of Luxor.! 
They have together an extreme north to south range of about 300 miles through a 
practically rainless region of dry air and intense desert heat. Siwah is said to be 
78 feet below sea level. The other oases of the chain lie at elevations ranging from 
near sea level to three or four hundred feet above. Only Khargeh has railway con- 
nection with the Nile Valley; from the other oases the dates reach the Nile Valley 
by camel caravans commanded by Bedouin traders who buy the entire export crop 
of the desert people at their gardens. 
The common occurrence of this date as the leading variety of the widely detached 
oases, while it is unknown in the Nile Valley,” suggests that they have had it in 
possession a long time, perhaps dating back to a period when allegiance to the Egyp- 
tian Government was not acknowledged and when communication was much more 
free and regular by the desert trails between the oases than that between the oases 
and the Nile Valley. 
In the enumeration of the taxed date palms of Upper Egypt for 1907 the oasis of 
- Baharieh is credited with 98,996, Dakhleh with 106,344, and Kargeh with 65, 521, or 
a total of nearly 271,000 trees. Siwah and Farafreh are not reported. 
From observations in Kargeh and Dakhleh and from the crop seen coming in from 
Baharieh, the writer is satisfied that considerably more than half of the trees in these 
three oases are of the Saidy variety, so that a low estimate would give 150,000 or 
200,000 of these without including Siwah Oasis, where it is known to be the chief tree. 
1 Siwah is approximately 25° 30’ east of Greenwich and in 29° norvh latitude. Baharieh is crossed by the 
meridian of 29° and lies just north of 28° latitude. Farafreh lies close to the intersection of the meridian of 
28° and the parallel of 27°. Dakhleh lies about equally on either side of the meridian of 29° and at about 
25° 30’ north latitude. Khargeh lies with its greatest extent north and south about 30° 40’ east and from 
24° 30’ to 26° north latitide (Pl. I). 
2 Unless the Siwah of Gizeh Province proves to be identical, 
