64 BULLETIN 1457, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
varieties, and the grace of its feathery leaves makes a grove of these 
trees at 30 or 40 years of age a peculiarly attractive sight. The lack 
of aged trees in the El Marg district and the preponderance of trees 
15 to 40 years old points to the rather recent development of the 
market for rutab dates in Lower Egypt. This palm is at its best 
around El Marg, where the ground water is not far below the surface, 
but it seems to have the ability to send its roots deep down, for above 
Ramleh, near the coast, are many trees which receive no irrigation 
and depend for water on the soil moisture 15 feet deep. These trees 
are making only a moderate height growth but bear profitable crops. 
THE HEIGHT GROWTH OF THE ZAGLOUL AND SAMANY VARIETIES 
The Zagloul date is said to have originated in the vicinity of 
Rosetta, or " Rasheid" of the native nomenclature, and is one of the 
most valuable and striking varieties in Lower Egypt. Only trees 
of considerable age are to be found around Cairo, and these are 
chiefly in former palace gardens. The heights of the specimens 
measured from three groups of trees said to be 35, 55, and 90 years 
old, respectively, are plotted on the same sheet with the Hayany. 
The incomplete curve (fig. 9, Y-Z) shows this to be one of the palms 
of most rapid growth, with a sustained growth rate equaled only by 
the Amhat. 
The Samany, another highly valued though not abundant date of 
Rosetta origin, has been planted in small numbers around Cairo and 
has a growth habit strikingly different from that of the Zagloul. Its 
height growth is slow, the trunk stout, with a heavy crown of extra- 
long leaves which sometimes reach 16 feet. The locations of three 
specimens measured are marked s in Figure 9 and indicate a. growth 
curve close to those of the Saidy and the Hayany. 
THE TREE-CLIMBER'S CRAFT 
The imposing heights reached by Egyptian date palms, even by 
varieties of such modest growth as the Hayany and the Saidy, point 
to the conclusion that the craft of the tree climber must be trans- 
ferred to the United States along with other features of the date 
industry. It need not follow that all the details of 'the craft should 
be copied here, any more than that we should adopt their methods 
of pruning and the use of the sakieh in irrigation. 
The fact must be faced that a great many American date palms 
are rapidly outgrowing the stepladder stage and that some other 
method will soon have to be adopted for reaching their tops. 
At the Arizona Agricultural Experiment substation at Tempe and 
at the former experiment-station garden west of Phoenix, now pri- 
vate property, are the oldest and tallest imported date palms in the 
United States, many of them being from 25 to 30 feet high. 
Here 20-foot ladders, and some 25 feet or more, are needed. 
Moving such a ladder to different positions around the tree or from 
one tree to another becomes a task for two men and suggests the 
question whether the cultural work could not be more easily and 
efficiently done by the climber's methods. 
The use of extension ladders on wheels has been suggested, but 
they are likely to prove entirely too cumbersome, especially in soft, 
