That delicious European fruit, the strawberry, by nature a dweller in
cool and Alpine regions, was not known in Egypt till within forty years
ago. Planted as an experiment by someone familiar with its qualities,
it seems to have passed rather an unfavourable time in popular
estimation; but it is now gradually gaining in favour, and the area
under cultivation is steadily extending.
The fruit is ripe in November, and finds a ready sale at tenpence per
pound; while, if the cultivation is good and well-managed, the return to
the planter may be reckoned at forty pounds for the produce of an acre.
To an Englishman familiar with the strawberry and its growth, one
knowing the botanical character of the plant and the love of its roots
for a rich clay land, it seems surprising that it should flourish so
well in the sandy soil of Egypt. But, of course, this is explained by
the yearly deposit of rich silt, or warp, the result of the annual
floods.
Fortunately for the grower, he is not troubled as in England by woodland
birds, the Eastern crops suffering very little from their ravages, while
the plant enjoys almost an immunity from the attacks of insect plagues.
In the goodly list of luscious fruits we now come to figs--not the
overgrown, sickly fruit that only ripens under very favourable
circumstances in England, but the rich saccharine bag of embedded seed
that we know best in its dried and pressed form as the common fig.
Its cultivation is spread over the whole Delta and the Fayoum, where its
milky, succulent stems and dark green leaves flourish thoroughly well.
The trees, as a rule, grow to a height of nine or ten feet, are well
branched, and find great favour with the native gardener, for they
possess the admirable qualities of requiring not much attention, very
little manure, and no pruning. Joined to this, the trees are very
prolific, and the luscious fruit finds great favour with the people.
Another popular fruit which grows without much attention save
irrigating, and that to a very moderate degree, is the prickly pear.
Here in England the melon is looked upon as a delicacy. Gardeners vie
one with the other in its production, and seedsmen push forward this
fashionable fruit by advertising their own special specimens of prize
kinds, and these may be almost classed as legion.
In Egypt the varieties are roughly divided into two, the sweet and the
water melon, and they both flourish wonderfully. They are sown in
February and March, and thrive best in light loam, while their period of
growth extends to about four months.
In their rapid development they attain to a goodly size. For instance,
a water melon may reach the weight of thirty pounds, while from a
marketing point of view, taking large and small together, so as to
strike an average, the wholesale price may be placed at fivepence per
melon, and the cultivator of an acre of land devoted to this produce may
reckon on receiving from forty to sixty pounds--pretty satisfactory for
the four months of growth and the land ready for planting with some
other crop suitable to the season, for the grower has no dreary months
of winter to intervene.
The cultivation of the sweet melon is similar to that of its relative,
but the fruit is finer in flavour and the plants not so prolific.
Consequently the grower's receipts are much smaller, a fair computation
of the returns from an acre being from about thirty to forty pounds.
There is another disadvantage, too, in the growth of this fruit. It
must be consumed within some ten days after being fully ripe, whereas
the sturdy water melon will keep good for over a month. In spite of the
good qualities of the melon, its ease of growth, and the market
requirements, nothing like sufficient are grown, the demand being
supplied by the importation of large quantities from neighbouring
countries.
This popular fruit is always looked upon as deliciously refreshing and
fine in flavour, but it may be mentioned here how much climate has to do
with the quality of the fruit. Some years ago a friend, after a
prolonged stay in Egypt, presented the writer with a few seeds of the
Egyptian melon. These were planted here in England and nursed up under
glass with all the care that good gardening and watching could bestow.
Everything was done to the exotic plants that a certain amount of
experience in growing melons could supply, and a couple of them
flourished exceedingly--under glass, be it remembered, in a heated
house--blossomed, and bore several fine large green fruit, whose
increase was watched and maturing waited for, but in vain.
Presumably there was a certain amount of fragrance and ripening, for the
fruit changed colour and gave forth the familiar odour; but the
anticipations of enjoying a delicious Egyptian melon were not fulfilled.
A good ripe vegetable marrow would have put either of them to the
blush.
Pumpkins, big and gourd-like in growth--_pastiches_, as they are
commonly called--are most abundant in the early winter months, and are
largely brought down the river from Upper Egypt in barges or feluccas
with graceful lateen sails. They form a pleasant addition to the food
of the poor, while in their growth, favoured as they are by a hot sun,
rich soil, and a sufficiency of moisture, their increase is almost
fabulous, and anyone of curious taste and plenty of patience, aided by a
powerful magnifying glass, might in all probability be gratified by
seeing the creeping growth of the watery vine and the steady swelling
out of its heavy earth-supported fruit.
Another fruit upon our list is the pomegranate, of late years made
familiar upon the barrows in the London streets, and looking when cut
open something like an unwholesome blood orange that has aborted and
taken to growing an enormous excess of pips embedded in jelly within a
hardened peel.
In spite of the enterprise which has brought the fruit here, it seems
hardly likely to bring the shippers much reward; but it is extensively
grown in Egypt, is in great demand, and very profitable.
To continue with unfamiliar fruits, we may next name the great date
palm, which may be looked upon as the most common tree to be found in
Egypt, growing as it does all over both the upper and lower regions, as
well as on the sandy shores of the Mediterranean Sea. No wonder that it
is so largely planted, for its fruit is everywhere consumed by the
people as a portion of their food.
The tree begins to bear five years after planting, and should take the
record as a profitable friend of man, for under favourable conditions it
will go on bearing for a hundred years or more, while a good tree will
bear, on an average, over a hundredweight of fruit, which is disposed of
amongst the people at the popular price of one penny per pound.
The fruit ripens in September, and where the trees are selected, are of
the best variety and well attended to, the profits are very good,
especially if they are planted in a garden, where their tuft of leaves,
raised high upon their tall, smooth stems, throws so little shade that
the ground beneath can be profitably planted with other crops, such as
the ordinary domestic vegetables of our own country, haricot beans,
peas, spinach, etc.
"The large, dark, red-skinned, hard date," a friend writes from Cairo,
"has long been plentiful, and forms one of the staple foods of the
populace. But to-day--_i.e._, mid-October--the soft, small luscious
date was served at table. This is a most delicious fruit. It tastes
for all the world like caramel toffee, though of course much softer.
These dates are wonderfully cheap. They do not, however, keep more than
twelve hours after picking, and then begin to ferment and taste like
beer. They are most plentiful, and there is, no doubt, much waste. I
should think that a strong spirituous liquor could be distilled from
them."
Other fruits may be mentioned, such as the quince, loquat, lotus, and
that favourite of farther east, the delicious mango; but these are not
extensively cultivated, and may very well be excluded from a list of
fruits that might be profitably grown for market purposes. The wonder
is that the mango has been neglected, comparatively, up to now. Still,
the Egyptians are waking up to its value, for during 1903 there has been
in Cairo a very plentiful supply of this luscious fruit, which bears
some semblance in the eating to a very rich and juicy apricot,
resembling it also in colour.
The old saying of the Anglo-Indian who makes it a favourite, in spite of
a slight suspicion of turpentine in its flavour, is doubtless well-known
to the reader--that which suggests that the best way of combating the
superabundant juice and its gushing ways is to sit in one's bath when
partaking of the fruit.
In summing up the prospects of fruit growing in Egypt, Mr Wright states
that he has no hesitation in saying that the conditions for gardening in
Egypt are certainly far more favourable than in such an uncertain
climate as that of England, where in one night so much blossom may be
destroyed by frost; while in Egypt one never hears of such a thing as a
total failure of crop.