Show arabs hold date palms dearer than wives would sell her rather than twig of tree it took this country ten years to discover something was wrong with its 1890 purchase of baby alms palms says popular mechanics the trees grew at the tha prodigious rate ot of two feet a year but mostly they were barren and ruit fruit ot of the producers was inferior dr david fairchild went to the sahara as americas troubleshooter trouble shooter ile he sent home the first shipments of fertile offshoots off shoots in 1901 but had to obtain the intervention veri tion ot of the british governor general 0 of egypt before he be could buy even one date sprig an arab may sell his wife or one of them his camel or his donkey but try to buy an offshoot from a choice palm and he reaches for his trusty scimitar nor will he dispose of his best fruit unless there is a surplus over family needs his garden is protected by a high stone wall and admittance is only by invitation vi vit dr fairchild returned with enthusiastic thusia reports of a rare date he found tn in bazaars along the nile it was called the wahl and he traveled thousands of miles by camel trying to trace its source and buy some of its progeny other government agents also attempted to trail the wahl without success until dr silas C mason was sent to egypt in 1913 with instructions to bring home a wahl date child and bring her home alive he sent bundies bundles ot of thousands A sheik told him the secret we ol of the oasis call it saidi or selden he said but when these bedouin traders get over to the valley with it they call it the wahl A wahl date is a date from an oasis any date from any oasis |