60 BULLETIN 1457, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Egyptians anticipated this want long since. Plate 11, B, shows a 
number of double-decked poultry crates seen on the railway platform 
at El Marg. The live-poultry industry is a thriving one in Cali- 
fornia, and material for the construction of good crates, at once airy, 
light, and strong, is continually becoming scarcer and advancing in 
price. 
FURNITURE FROM LEAF-RIB MATERIAL 
Egyptian workmen show much ingenuity in making household fur- 
niture from the higher class date-leaf ribs. Very comfortable 
benches, settees with high backs, couches, and even tolerable bed- 
steads are all made on the rail-and-spindle principle, but with the 
rails crowded close together. Very neat taborets and stools of a 
variety of forms are also made. American taste and ingenuity 
would readily contrive a variety of styles of serviceable and attrac- 
tive bungalow furniture from this material. 
Of course, in any such construction undertaken under Ameri- 
can labor conditions, advantage would have to be taken of the light 
machinery with which our woodworking and furniture shops are so 
well equipped. Several types of machines now in use would need 
only a slight adaptation to answer for this work. Others might be 
devised as the needs of the work developed. 
COMPARATIVE HEIGHT OF EGYPTIAN DATE PALMS 
The magnificent height of the date palms in the Nile Valley is one 
of the first things to attract the attention of the visitor. Especially 
along the Nile bank on the Gizera below the Kasr Neil bridge and 
again above the Giza station the high, clean trunks of the palms 
show in sharp relief above the river surface. In connection with a 
survey of the distribution of the three chief commercial varieties — 
the Amhat, the Hayany, and the " Sewi " in the vicinity of Cairo — 
an attempt was made to measure enough trees of a series from 
youngest to oldest to permit the plotting of growth-rate curves. 
At best, in a country like Egypt, with few records and much left 
to memory and tradition, only approximations of the ages of the 
older trees are possible. With information that a certain garden was 
planted as a part of the palace grounds for Ismail Pasha or Sultan 
Hassein the age of palms in that garden is not hard to estimate, 
but when one aged man asserts that certain palms were planted by 
his grandfather and were " tauwil " (high) trees when he was a little 
boy, the age for those trees is a matter for judicious approximation. 
The relative growth rate of two varieties grown together is more 
reliably compared, provided they were planted at the same time. 
A variety may grow very rapidly for the first 10 or 15 years and 
thereafter decline in growth, attaining only a moderate maximum 
height in the end, while another may sustain a relatively rapid 
growth rate for many years. 
To carry out the measurements, an expert tree climber was em- 
ployed — one familiar with the neighborhood when possible, whose 
acquaintance with owners or head gardeners and knowledge of local 
traditions would be of most value. A 100-foot metallic tape was 
used, the ring carried to the top of the highest visible sheath or leef , 
and drawn taut to the ground surface. Diameter measurements at 4 
feet from the ground were made on most of the trees. 
