DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 29 
Valley area of the Saidy, has nights nearly G degrees F. warmer than 
Bard, Calif., but day temperatures more than 6 degrees F. lower, 
leaving the means of the seven months nearly the same. Now that it 
is known that the Saidy will fruit and mature at its best under the 
dew-point conditions of Yuma, the way is open for comparison with 
other river- valley points with nights cool from air drainage. Parker, 
with its 30,000 acres of Indian lands, has nearly the same tempera- 
tures, and this station is representative of the whole Palo Verde Val- 
ley. The Needles district, with limited irrigation possibilities, has 
warmer nights, but probably the immediate valley lands would prove 
about like those of Parker. 
Buckeye and Sacaton, in the Gila Valley, have nearly uniform 
temperatures, a fraction warmer than Bard. Sacaton, Ariz., fairly 
represents a great area in the range of the Santa Cruz underflow, in 
the vicinity of Casa Grande and Maricopa, where lifting water for 
irrigation is rather expensive for cotton at normal prices, but could 
be made profitable for an intensive industry like date growing. 
The former Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, just out- 
side of the city of Phoenix, shows mean maximum temperatures for 
the fruit-growing period 1 degree F. lower than Bard, but with the 
mean practically the same. Here one of the earliest imported " Sewi " 
trees in Arizona, possibly a Saidy seedling, matured its fruit suc- 
cessfully. The Mesa district is practically uniform with this station 
in temperature. 
Both maximum and minimum records at the Cooperative Date 
Garden at Tempe are almost identical with those at Bard. Eight 
imported Saidy and " Siwah " trees have been growing there since 
1904-1905. Their growth has been at the maximum for the variety, 
and heavy crops of fruit have been set. These have been late 
enough to pass the summer rains without damage, but with diffi- 
culty reached even the processing maturity, though of late some 
good fruit has been packed. The temperature records indicate that 
the fruit should mature to a stage to process perfectly. 
HIGH WATER TABLE A FACTOR AT THE TEMPE DATE GARDEN 
Since the establishment of the present irrigation system in 1907 in 
the district where the Cooperative Date Garden is situated, in the Salt 
River Valley, Ariz., the water level has been never lower than 4 
feet, with the cooling effect of heavy surface evaporation. Although 
many earlier varieties have been able to mature under these condi- 
tions, the late-maturing Saidy has been retarded too far for com- 
mercial success. With the recent installation of a powerful drain- 
age pump near this tract the lowering of the water table should 
enable this valuable date to reach full maturity this year. It reaches 
its highest perfection in heavy soils in Kharga, Dakhla, and the Nile 
Valley, and in the adobe soil of the garden at Tempe its yields have 
been much heavier than in the lean beach sand of the garden at 
Mecca, Calif. In any well-drained sandy clay soil of the districts 
represented in Table 2 the Saidy date ought to be a heavy producer. 
