DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 41 
The shadoof, invented long before the time of the Pharoahs, has 
been modified in 4,000 years by substituting a galvanized-iron bucket 
for one of rawhide and is still the means of getting water to thou- 
sands of acres of crops out of the reach of gravity flow. These 
sweeps are often placed in pairs, side by side, and as the range of 
lift is only 5 or 6 feet, sometimes two or three .relays are needed 
to raise the water from the canal or river to the level of the fields. 
The sakieh, with its three great geared wooden wheels propelled 
by a camel or blindfolded cow, lifts the water by an endless chain 
of buckets attached to a pair of cables made from the fruit-bearing 
stalks or the pinnae of the date palm. 
Many date orchards have a flow of canal water in the winter, but 
must depend on wells to carry the crop through the summer. 
Some of the larger estates have installed engines and pumps of 
various types, but unless the property is large enough to pay the 
salary of a skilled engineer the sakiehs, which the native gardeners 
can easily keep in repair, take the lead in real efficiency and economy. 
MAINTAINING SOIL FERTILITY 
Egypt depended for untold centuries upon the annual deposit of 
silt from " Mother Nile " to maintain the fertility of her lands, and 
the arrival of each year's flood was a day of festivity and rejoicing. 
Since the building of the great dam at Aswan the heaviest silt is 
sent down to the sea and only the clearer water stored, so that the 
land lacks the annual fertilizing. 
The problem of maintaining soil fertility under the production of 
two and three crops a year is rapidly becoming a serious one. It is 
the more so as, with the great scarcity and high price of fuel, the 
manure from the stock that is kept is worked up into little cakes for 
the cooking fires, so that the land gets little return from the straw 
and forage produced. Even the wheat crop is sometimes pulled 
instead of being reaped, and the soil is deprived of even the stubble. 
The growing of berseem among date palms in winter as a forage 
and soiling crop is the most hopeful practice that was observed. 
Even then the most that the soil receives is the nitrogen from the 
root nodules. With four or five cuttings of forage removed there is 
little return for the mineral salts extracted from the soil. 
The need of fertilizers is recognized in the fact that the refuse 
from ruined towns and villages is screened and carried to the gar- 
dens in deep conical baskets balanced over camel saddles. An analy- 
sis of this material under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture 
showed that its application was of rather doubtful utility. 
In Kharga and Dahkla Oases considerable beds of low-grade phos- 
phate rock have been reported in the geological surveys. Date 
gardens getting the wash from adjacent bluffs containing these beds 
have maintained a fine appearance, as though well fertilized. 
Whether the percentage of phosphate is high enough to warrant 
commercial handling and export to the valley seems to need further 
investigation. 
PRUNING 
Pruning practices differ in a very marked way in the different 
sections of Egypt and the Sudan. In Lower Egypt, including 
