DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 49 
been collected at the gardens and pollen is required, one is split 
with a sharp knife and the fingers of the flower head cut off for 
convenient use. 
Male flowers, which under the usual American methods remain on 
the tree till the spathes burst and the flowers open, begin to discharge 
their pollen at once, and much of it is wasted either by the wind or 
by being carried away by bees. The mere disturbance of cutting the 
flower head from the sf:>athe and bringing it to the storeroom wastes 
another portion of the pollen ; and the chances are that the sprigs or 
fingers of the flowers, by the time they are placed in the fruiting 
head in the operation of pollination, will be depleted of a good share 
of their pollen. 
This Egyptian method of putting the unopened spathes undoubt- 
edly possesses very great advantages, especially in transporting the 
flowers from the trees to the point where they are to be used. Some 
experience will doubtless be needed to enable the cultivator to select 
the opportune time for cutting the spathes, obtaining full develop- 
ment without the risk of bursting. With the utmost experience a 
small percentage may open after they are cut, but such do not dis- 
charge much pollen until the fingers are exposed to the air. 
To judge from the following extract from Dowson (tf, pt. i, p. 27) a 
similar practice seems to prevail in Mesopotamia. 
It is the custom for the whole unopened male spathe to be cut from the palm 
immediately before ripening and the inflorescence extracted through an arti- 
ficial incision and left a day or two in a small basket to mature. In this way 
no pollen is wasted. 
The photograph used for Plate 7, B, was made at El Hawam- 
diya in March, 1914, where a railway truck load of male spathes had 
been received from the Oasis of Fayum and sorted and parceled out 
among several garden owners of the neighborhood. It will be 
noticed that in the foreground are a number of split spathes which 
have been sorted out for immediate use. The price was 2 to 4 
piasters, amounting in United States money to 10 to 20 cents a 
spathe, a price which, allowing from 10 to 20 spathes to the tree, 
would give a return of only $1 to $4 a tree — not more than half the 
return from a fruiting tree of the choicer varieties, as Amhat, 
Hayany, or Saidy. 
Under American conditions a fruiting date garden can be counted 
upon to give a gross return of not less than $500 an acre, one year 
with another. Male trees might be planted considerably closer than 
females, say 75 trees to the acre, though they usually occupy odd 
spaces rather than acreage. Allowing 75 trees to the acre and an 
average of 12 spathes to the tree, the yield would be 900 spathes, 
which should command a minimum of $500, or 55 cents each, with 
extra-large fine ones of proved virility bringing $1 each and well 
worth it. 
Only when the value of male date flowers is thus placed on a com- 
mercial basis will the date grower realize that he should provide a 
sufficient number of male trees to take care of his maximum crop 
with a margin .of safety. As fast as he can test them he should see 
to it that these males have that degree of compatibility which will 
give the best results with the varieties he is cultivating. 
