DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 55 
alive with larvae, so the London market was not invaded. It would 
appear that under the conditions of the air-tight bulk pack the 
moth eggs are unable to develop. 
HARVESTING THE BARAKAWI AND IBBIMI DRY DATES 
The harvesting of the dry dates of the narrow bit of Nile Valley 
from Korosko to Ibrim and of the Wadi Haifa region is about as 
simple a matter as gathering so much maize. The ripened branches 
are cut and dropped to the ground, and the hard, dry dates are 
stripped from them and piled in some court or compound until the 
time for marketing. 
Under the later developments of the date trade, the crops are 
often contracted for in advance. The trader furnishes heavy bur- 
lap sacks holding about 320 pounds each. The packing of the dates 
in these is about as simple as sacking so much wheat or barley. 
The leading merchants affirm that if the dates are thoroughly sun 
dried and sacked promptly in sound tight sacks the danger from 
weevil infestation is slight. Dates from the Sukkot country may 
be run down the river at its flood in native boats at considerable 
risk of wreckage on the cataracts, or they may be sent to Wadi 
Haifa by the slower and surer means of camel transport. 
Within the Dongola reach the sacked dates on barges may be 
towed by the post steamers to Karima for rail shipment to either 
Wadi Haifa or Omdurman. The camel men put up a strong com- 
petition for the trade from the river to Omdurman. 
The overhead in the whole affair is reduced to a minimum. The 
Barakawi, which originated in the Sukkot region — hence often 
called " Sukkoti," as it comes down the river — becomes the " Ibrimi ? ' 
from Wadi Haifa and the old stronghold of Ibrim below Wadi 
Haifa and is so known all the way down to Cairo, but apparently 
any hard, dry dates of a common type are slipped in under this 
common name, and there are indications that many seedlings are 
produced which are close to the parent Barakawi type. 
From Wadi Haifa about 4,000 tons of dry dates annually go down 
the river to Cairo and other Egyptian points The Haifa merchants 
open the sacks as they come from the individual growers and dump 
the contents in huge piles in such a way as to get a uniform mixture. 
Some little attempt at cleaning and sorting is made, but the asser- 
tion is made that the trade does not warrant careful grading and 
classifying. This is from the standpoint of the merchant. It is the 
writer's opinion that the establishing and enforcing of grades for 
the leading varieties would greatly benefit the industiy by stimulat- 
ing better cultivation and handling on the part of the growers. 
UTILIZING DATE-PALM BY-PRODUCTS 
During the writer's first stay in Egypt in 1913-14, he was much 
impressed with the value of the date-palm products, other than the 
fruit, to the more than 11,000,000 Egyptians — an impression that 
has been deepened with each of the succeeding journeys since the 
World War. Most of these people are forced to live in a rather 
primitive way in a country wholly destitute of forests and with the 
greatest scarcity of fuel, either for manufacturing or for domestic 
