DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 57 
terminal bud each year. It follows that an equal number of the 
leaves below should be pruned off each year, in order to keep the 
dying leaves out of the way and to keep the blossoms and fruit, 
which are produced within 6 to 8 leaves of the top, within reach of 
the cultivator. 
With an average of 12 leaves each on several hundred thousand 
trees to be removed annually as a necessity, it becomes an important 
economic problem whether they are to be treated as so much rubbish 
to be carted out and burned or whether, under American labor con- 
ditions, they can be made to serve some useful purpose and at least 
pay the cost of their removal. 
MAKING CRATES FROM LEAF MIDRIBS 
The most obvious use of date leaves in America would be the 
manufacture of the strong midribs^ or " gerid " as the Egyptians 
term them, into crates. The variety of sizes and shapes of crates 
made by the native craftsmen of Lower Egypt is almost innumer- 
able. There is one variety of crate for your luncheon as you go 
out from your hotel to spend the day at the pyramids or at Saccara ; 
two braces of quail or pigeons may be hawked about the streets in 
a little crate of another pattern; while a donkey may be passing 
with two double-decked crates loaded with geese balanced over his 
back. Again, a heavy, specially made crate of selected midribs may 
constitute the entire bed or body of a 4-wheeled truck loaded with 
early melons, followed by a similar truck with a dozen crates filled 
with eggs packed in di\y sugar-cane leaves. Whatever may be the 
demands in America for light or moderate-weight packing cases, 
the Egyptian has a substitute, and a very good one, made from the 
inevitable gerid of the date-palm leaf. 
The adaptation of the crate-making craft to the needs of the 
highly specialized agricultural industries of Fayum, described else- 
where in this bulletin, is a most instructive example of such possi- 
bilities. The weight that may be inclosed in them is not insignifi- 
cant. The writer's later shipments of about 9,000 date-palm off- 
shoots were packed at Giza in nearly 400 specially designed crates 
of selected stock, mostly from the leaves of the Amhat and Saidy 
varieties of date trees, costing about $15 a thousand. These crates 
were 48 inches long, 26 inches wide, and 26 inches deep, inside 
measure. Their construction is shown in Plate 4, B. The sides 
and ends are each composed of 17 rails, or horizontal pieces, in two 
groups of four and three groups of three each, with an extra one 
around the bottom forming a panel. The bottom and lid comprise 
10 rails each. 
These rails were punched with a total of 1,152 holes for putting 
in the vertical spindles, of which there are 48 in the sides and ends 
and 16 each in the top and bottom. These crates were packed with 
an average of 20 offshoots each, moist leef being used for packing. 
They weighed, ready for shipment, about 400 pounds. The ccst 
of this style of crate delivered at the packing sheds in lots of 50 
was close to 45 piasters, or about $2.25 in United States money. An 
equivalent crate made of 3-inch pine or fir strips with doubled ends 
would have required about 35 feet of lumber, costing $3.50 in that 
country, without nails or labor. But with lumber the same strength 
and elasticity would not have been obtained. 
