DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 39 
PLANTING DISTANCES 
The Egyptian date growers generally plant their palms much more 
closely than is considered good practice in the United States. 
Whereas setting the trees 30 feet apart, giving 48 or 49 trees in square 
planting to the acre and allowing 100 square yards to the tree, has 
here come to be the most approved spacing, the Egyptian feddan of 
5.024 square yards will often carry 100 or 120 palms, which allows 
only 42 to 50 square yards to the tree. 
There is a tendency on the part of the more thoughtful Egyptian 
growers, however, to regard the old close spacing as less profitable 
than more open planting, and in some of the younger plantations, 
arranged in straight rows instead of the old " hit-or-miss " planting, 
72 to 80 trees to the feddan will be found on good heavy ground and 
as low as 60 trees on thin sandy soil. 
In mature plantations of Hayany near Ramleh 7 yards apart, or 
about 113 trees to the feddan, is a common distance, which by no 
means proves that this is the most profitable distance for planting. 
The Hayany, being a smaller, more quickly maturing palm, would 
doubtless admit of closer planting than the Amhat or the Saidy. 
A factor that must be taken into account is the light intensity 
as influenced both by relative humidity and by latitude. Photo- 
synthesis in the date palm is profoundly influenced by the intensity 
of the sunlight, and the difference in light intensity at Alexandria 
(lat. 32° and average humidity 68 per cent) and Dongola Province 
(lat. 18° and relative humidity 22 per cent) will have a marked 
effect on the starch-making capacity of palms in the two localities. 
Date palms in the coastal region should have the fullest exposure to 
sunlight in order to do their work most perfectly. 
The system of culture known as " mother and daughters," common 
in Upper Egypt and the Sudan, gives a much greater number of 
crowns to the feddan than should be permitted in the reduced light 
intensity of Ramleh. Water and fertility would then become the 
limiting factors. See Department Bulletin No. 271 (12, p. 21, pi. 4, 
fa *)• 
UNDERCULTURES IN DATE-PALM PLANTINGS 
Underculture crops comprise part-season or catch crops and per- 
manent plantings, as of trees, shrubs, and vines. Generally speak- 
ing, date trees are found (1) in gardens which are taxed as a whole, 
without enumerating the trees, where the palms form a part of a 
miscellaneous collection of fruiting and ornamental trees, and (2) 
in field or acreage culture where the date trees constitute the entire 
or the chief planting. 
Where the date trees occupy the land, some attempt is usually 
made at growing part-season crops, such as wheat, various varieties 
of beans, and (best of all) berseem. Wheat will do the best where 
the stand of palms is a broken one, but is at best a makeshift crop 
and can not afford much profit. Beans and lupines are sown broad- 
cast and scratched in rather lightly. They make a quick return 
while adding something to the soil through their root nodules. Ber- 
seem, sown in* autumn, is cut three or four times as a green forage 
crop, usually being fed to buffalo dairy cows which are tethered 
around the borders of the date grove. This crop adds considerable 
