32 BULLETIN 1457, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 
more than 100 miles, are eagerly bought in the very districts around 
Cairo out of which the early crop was shipped. This is a demand 
which perhaps has its counterpart in the fondness of the natives for 
sugar cane, many acres of which are grown on the rich bottoms across 
the Mle from Cairo, not for the sugar factories but to be stripped 
and brought into Cairo on donkey carts and sold, a stalk at a time, 
to the poorer classes with a craving for something sweet in their diet. 
That there is much to enjoy in dates in the crisp, hard-ripe rutab 
condition, if they are free from astringency, can not be denied, 
through many of them are ripened to a soft, mushy stage before 
being eaten. The taste for them is not confined to the lower classes, 
but they are enjoyed by Egyptian people of means and refinement, 
as well as by many Europeans. Here is a consumption of dates run- 
ning into thousands of tons. The bulk of them are produced in 
regions where there is not sufficient heat to mature a packing date. 
If a taste for this kind of date were developed and a demand for 
them created in the United States 18 it would open up for date 
culture thousands of acres that are now just outside the border line 
of success for that undertaking. Reference is made to regions where 
the date palm as a tree grows well and sets abundant crops of 
fruit, but where the number of heat units for the growing season 
following the flowering is not sufficient to mature packing dates, but 
would mature the crop to the rutab stage. 
Dates harvested in this stage of ripeness call for the lowest over- 
head cost in gathering, packing, and transportation of any form in 
which dates are handled (except the bone-dry bread dates of Upper 
Egypt, the Sudan, and other regions of intense heat and low hu- 
midity), though when softening has set in they are a very sticky 
product to handle in bulk. 
It follows that long-distance shipment is precluded, and only 
markets that can be reached within a few hours from the production 
point are available, 19 unless refrigerator cars are used. 
VARIETIES SUITED TO THE RUTAB TRADE IN EGYPT 
The Hayany variety, previously described in detail, is the principal 
date supplying the rutab market of Egypt and seems peculiarly 
adapted to this purpose. Its wide distribution throughout a region 
covering a considerable range in temperature and the extension of 
maturing time, apparently due to the numerous satellite seedlings 
included with the variety, keep its fruit before the public for about 
three or four months. 
No other Egyptian variety has quite the same adaptation to this 
use in the juicy sweetness of its brittle flesh and the lack of serious 
astringency at the hard-ripe stage. Yet, although handling to best 
advantage in this condition, many consumers finally allow these dates 
to become semiripe and soft before eating. 
18 It is worthy of note in this connection that in recent years the nonastringent 
Japanese persimmons of the Fuyu type that are eaten in crisp and juicy condition, like 
rutab dates, have become increasingly popular in the United States. 
1! ' T. R. Robinson, in a conversation with the writer, stated that a number of seedling 
date palms in Key West, Fla., bear good crops of dates which are harvested in the 
khalal stage of maturity and are sold on the street in small paper bags". Though keenly 
relished by the boys of the street, they might be considered rather astringent by persons 
of more fastidious taste. 
