UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1457 
Washington, D. C. 
May, 1927 
DATE CULTURE IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 
By Silas O. Mason, Horticulturist, Office of Crop Physiology and Breeding, 
Bureau of Plant Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Regions and conditions of date culture. .. 1 
Varietal culture in Lower Egypt 2 
The localizing of Egyptian varieties 3 
Egypt's small export-date industry 3 
Varietal date culture in the Libian Oases. 3 
Upper Nile varietal date region 4 
Seedling dates in the Nile Valley from 
Giza to the First Cataract.. 7 
Seedling dates in the Fayum Oasis 8 
Leading commercial varieties 9 
The Amhat date 9 
The Amri date.- 10 
The Barakawi date 11 
The Bentamoda date 15 
The Hayany date 16 
The Saidy date.. 24 
Satellite seedlings 30 
Consumption of dates in the hard-ripe stage. 31 
Varieties suited to the rutab trade in 
Egypt. 32 
Shipping and handling rutab dates 33 
Cultural operations.. 34 
Offshoot propagation 34 
Page 
Cultural operations— Continued. 
Planting distances 39 
Undercultures in date-palm plantings 39 
Date palms and other fruit trees. 40 
Cultivating and irrigating 40 
Maintaining soil fertility 41 
Pruning 41 
Pollination 45 
Harvesting and packing 50 
Utilizing date-palm by-products. 55 
Making crates from leaf midribs 57 
Possibilities of crate manufacture in Amer- 
ica 59 
Furniture from leaf-rib material 60 
Comparative height of Egyptian date palms. 60 
The Amhat and Saidy growth curves 61 
The Hayany growth curve 63 
The height growth of the Zagloul and 
Samany varieties ._ 64 
The tree-climber's craft.. 64 
Landscape value of the date palm 66 
Summary 68 
Literature cited 70 
REGIONS AND CONDITIONS OF DATE CULTURE 
The date industry in Egypt differs from that of most date-growing 
regions in comprising two large, well-defined districts where seedling- 
date palms are almost exclusively grown, as well as three other 
districts widely separated where the culture of commercial varieties 
from offshoots prevails. In Algeria, Tunis, Mesopotamia, and other 
regions with long-established export trade in dates the commercial 
varieties propagated by offshoots almost wholly occupy the land 
planted' to dates. 
Jt requires a rather careful study of the economic agricultural con- 
ditions of Egypt to discover the causes which lead to the rather 
curious localizing of seedling or balad}^ culture of dates in distinc- 
tion from varietal cultures. (PL 1.) 
Lower Egypt, including Giza Province, which extends about 15 
miles above Cairo, constitutes the most important and extensive 
10344—27 1 1 
