An Egyptian oasis

by H. J. L. Beadnell

The staple crops of the oasis are dates, rice, wheat, and barley, while for fodder large quantities of lucerne are grown. It seems at first sight a curious anomaly that in an arid region, where water is so scarce and precious a commodity, rice should be grown as the summer crop. Few, if any, plants require such an abundance of water as rice, which from the time of sowing to that of reaping has to be continually irrigated by fresh water, the fields being, indeed, during the whole period that the crop is on the ground, in a constant state of saturation. Rice does not thrive in stagnant water, and it is noticeable that the best crops in the oasis are raised on lands which have a decided slope, and over which fresh water can be kept constantly running. The proper irrigation of a rice-field is a matter of no small difficulty, and the ingenious manner in which the oasis cultivator lays out his irrigating channels and subdivides them by means of notched weirs, so as to insure every portion of the crop getting a continuous supply of fresh water, is well worthy of close examination.

In the Nile Delta, according to Sir William Willcocks,[13] rice requires about twice as much water as the other commonly-grown crops, but in the oases I do not think I am mistaken in saying that it needs three times as much as any other grain. Rice appears to have been grown from time immemorial, and certainly at the present day the inhabitants would as soon think of giving up their date-trees as of replacing it by any other crop. Now, however, that facilities exist for the export of farm-produce to the Nile Valley markets, it will be interesting to observe whether rice will to any extent be replaced by more valuable crops.

In Upper Egypt the summer crop is largely durra millet (sorghum), but this plant does not thrive in the oasis, though whether on account of an uncongenial soil or owing to unsuitable climatic conditions I am unable to say. It has frequently been tried—in fact, small areas are annually planted, but never produce crops—at any rate, in the northern part of Kharga—in any sense comparable with those of the Nile Valley. The very fact that durra cannot be satisfactorily grown suggests a probable reason why rice, the least valuable of the Egyptian cereals, and the one requiring most water, is so universally grown in Northern Kharga. Rice, as is well known, will grow on land containing a proportion of salts which would be injurious, or even fatal, to the majority of crops, and will at the same time exercise a beneficial and cleansing effect on such land. The growing of rice may therefore have come about through the actual necessity for a periodical cleansing of land, which would otherwise have become salted to a sufficient extent to adversely affect other crops grown on the same ground. At the present day, barley and wheat alternate with rice.

The thorough and prolonged soaking to which land is subject when under rice is in itself of considerable value to succeeding crops, and in the reclamation of heavy clay-lands in the Headquarters district my experience has been that as a first crop there is nothing to equal this cereal. In many cases, indeed, it was found to be the only crop which could be at all satisfactorily raised on new lands with only a moderate application of manure. A good tilth, moreover, is far more rapidly obtained than when other crops are grown, the difference in the second and third years between lands which have and have not had rice on them being most marked.

I was much surprised to find that rice is not grown in the southern districts of the oasis, with the exception of a couple of small areas near Dakhakhin. Extended inquiries failed to elicit satisfactory reasons for this remarkable difference from the practice followed in the north, the universal reply to my questions being that they, the inhabitants, in not growing rice, were merely following the custom of their ancestors! I noticed, however, that durra was grown on a much larger scale than in the north of the oasis, and that the crops in some cases reached a fairly good standard. It seems probable, therefore, that in this part of the depression the soil is of higher average quality, so that the land, renovated by the annual deposition of a fresh layer of wind-borne sand and clay-dust in the manner already described, does not need a periodical cleansing by rice. This, at least, is the only satisfactory explanation which has occurred to me.

The harvesting of the date-crop in September and October is the most important event of the year in Kharga Oasis. A large portion of the crop is exported to the Nile Valley, the Bedawin becoming traders for the time being, and transporting the produce across the desert by means of camels. There are over 60,000 adult date-palms, the chief palm-groves being at Kharga, Gennâh, and Bulaq in the north, and at Beris in the south. The selling-price in the oasis fluctuates to some extent, but averages twenty piastres a ‘weba’ of between 60 and 70 pounds, the weight of a weba varying considerably according to the moistness of the fruit and the astuteness of the man entrusted with the measuring. The price works out roughly at 4 pounds for threepence.

In a book[14] entitled “The Great Sahara,” published nearly fifty years ago, Canon Tristram gives a very full account of the cultivation of the date-palm in North Africa. The date-palm (Phœnix dactilifera) is a tree specially characteristic of the Sahara, where the climate is marked by deficiency of rainfall and by considerable variations of temperature. Although it flourishes best in rainless regions, the date-palm will not fruit unless its roots are well watered; it must, indeed, as the native proverb puts it, ‘have its head in the fire and its roots in water.’

In Egypt there are about fifty varieties of date-palm the chief kinds in Kharga Oasis being the Saîdi, Tamar, Fâlig, and Hamrâwi. The Saîdi dates of the oases are generally considered to be superior in flavour to almost any other Egyptian variety, and have in consequence a ready sale in the Nile Valley. The other varieties are not exported to any great extent, except, perhaps, the Fâlig; the Tamar, while producing a heavier crop than the other kinds, yields fruit of comparatively poor quality, which is on that account almost entirely used for home consumption. The Hamrâwi trees are very limited in number, but produce fruit of large size and excellent flavour; Hamrâwi dates are, however, I believe, regarded as having bad keeping properties.

Dates are met with of almost every variety of colour except pure black or white. All the different kinds ripen at or about the same time—in the early part of September. A tree will bear from eight to ten bunches, each carrying from 12 to 20 pounds of fruit, so that in full bearing it will yield from 100 to 200 pounds of dates annually. The fruit exported from the oases, being entirely disposed of in the native markets of the Nile Valley, is packed and sewn up without any special care in palm-leaf baskets. For local use small quantities of selected fruit are frequently preserved in a moist state in earthenware jars.

Date-stones cast on the ground and accidentally buried under an inch or two of soil will germinate freely, but the resulting plants are of little use. Not one in a hundred will turn out of the same variety as its parent, so that plants raised from seed must in the great majority of cases be regarded as bastards, of no value as fruit-producers. In Kharga all new trees are raised from slipped plants—that is to say, from the young shoots which spring up at the butts of the parent trees. These are detached and planted out separately on new ground. The greatest care has to be taken to protect them from hot winds and sandstorms, and they must be watered daily for a number of weeks after being planted. Growth is very slow for the first two years, and even under the most favourable conditions the trees will not commence to bear fruit for five or six years. Date-palms come into full bearing when from twenty to twenty-five years old, and may live to a century or more. Every year the lowest ring of branches is cut off, so that the age of a tree can be fairly accurately ascertained by counting the rings of notches on the stem. The wild, unkempt, weather-beaten trees occasionally met with in outlying, uninhabited portions of the oasis have a very different appearance from the trim, erect palms of the cultivated areas.