42 
Giza Province, the trees are pruned very high, leaving but a tuft 
of leaves against the sky line, below which the bunches of fruit 
on the bent-over " sobata," or fruitstalks, show very conspicuously 
(pi. 6) before and after pruning. Not more than 40 or 50 leaves 
are left after this operation. It seems probable that two factors 
govern in this close pruning — one climatic, the other commercial. 
With the mean summer temperatures ranging 6 to 8 degrees F. lower 
than in Upper Egypt and the percentage of humidity two or two 
and a half times as high, the efficiency of the sun's rays in develop- 
ing sugar and ripening the fruit is greatly reduced. Full exposure 
of the fruit bunches to the sunlight and exposure of the trunk to 
the heat appear to be the important considerations. 
Aside from the regular leaf pruning, in which the rib (gerid) 
of the leaf is lopped off to within 12 or 15 inches of the base, there 
is a somewhat irregular second pruning in Avhich the wide leaf base 
is cut away and the exposed layers of the leef fiber pulled or cut out. 
(PI. 7, A.) This leaves the naked trunk free of that double zone 
of leaf bases and fiber (leef) which is so important an insulator to 
the palm tree in the more intensely heated regions. Even with this 
aid to heat penetration, the fruit of the coastal region reaches only 
the hard-ripe (rutab) stage by November or December, and often 
hangs on the trees until well into the winter. 
The utilization of the midribs (gerid) in crate making — a prac- 
tice much more prevalent in Lower Egypt than it is farther up the 
river — offers a constant temptation to close pruning. With the 
attractive price of £2 or £3 per thousand ($10 to $15, United States 
money), the gardener who holds 50 or 100 trees under lease is in- 
clined to prune as closely as he dares in order to increase his income. 
An interesting phase of pruning in the coastal regions of Egypt 
is brought about by the prevailing high winds blowing inland from 
the Mediterranean, which cause much damage to the tender growing 
fruit by beating the heavy bunches against the spines and leaf 
bases if they are not carefully protected. This protection is pro- 
vided by leaving a number of the midribs sufficiently long when 
priming to allow the fruitstalks to be lashed to them with stout cords, 
which the Egyptian gardener deftly twists between the palms of 
his hands from pinnae within his reach. This practice of lashing 
the fruit bunches to prevent threshing in the high spring winds is 
one which might be very profitably followed in many exposed situa- 
tions of the Coachella Valley. 
In Upper Egypt and the Sudan the pruning of the date palms 
is much less severe, a larger crown being retained and the close 
pruning of the leaf bases and the removal of the insulating fiber 
(leef) layers not being practiced. This is a great advantage to 
the trees in maintaining their resistance to the fierce rays of the 
tropical sun, but whether this is recognized by the native culti- 
vators or whether the lack of a ready market for the pruned leaf- 
stalks (gerid) and the store of fiber has failed to stimulate the 
practice of close pruning is a debatable question. 
A practice which may well be included under the topic of pruning 
is the cutting of offshoots which spring from the trunk of the palm 
at some distance from the ground. Such shoots are not considered 
by the natives of Lower Egypt to have any value for propagation 
purposes, but they believe that their growth diminishes the fruit 
