OF WASHINGTON. 285 



tion, however, is not necessary for the growth of the olive and 

 the vine. The system of pruning adapted for the latter, so far as 

 observed, is what may be called the stump plan ; that is, as soon 

 as the grape is gathered the vines are cut away, leaving a mere 

 stump which projects only a foot or so above the ground, and 

 resembles, more than anything else, a big-headed bludgeon rooted 

 in the earth. This system of culture is particularly unfavorable 

 to the multiplication of injurious insects, because all of the vine 

 and leaf growth is yearly removed, leaving nothing but barren 

 stumps, which furnish little or no protection for, or means of 

 harboring, injurious insects over winter. 



The great fruit crop, however, throughout Andalusian Spain 

 is the olive, and for hours, even days, the train passed through 

 mile after mile of olive orchards in unending succession, cover 

 ing plains, hills, and mountains ; all in excellent state of cultiva 

 tion ; all trimmed and low-headed in the same manner, and pre 

 senting a most pleasing appearance, and an efficiency in methods 

 and care not witnessed elsewhere in Europe. The most celebrated 

 olive orchards are in the province of Cordova. The harvest 

 begins in November or earlier, but at the time of my visit, at the 

 end of this month, much of the fruit was still ungathered, and 

 many of the trees were almost black with the ripening olives. 

 Everywhere the trees presented the same beautiful appearance 

 low-headed, like the basket willow, so that the fruit may be easily 

 gathered, and contrasting markedly with the Italian and Cali 

 fornia method in this respect, which allows the trees to grow as 

 they will. Many of these orchards, most of them in fact, are 

 of great age. The immense old gnarled trunks gave sufficient 

 indication of this when they remained entire ; but often they had 

 split and divided into three or four trees, which, in centuries per 

 haps, had grown apart until they looked like miniature groves. 

 Everywhere the same brilliant, clean appearance was presented, 

 and there was no indication of the chief scale enemy of the olive 

 (Lecanium olcce), with attending sooty discoloration of the 

 branches and foliage. These old orchards, some of them per 

 haps dating from the time of the Moors, if not earlier, have never 

 received any treatment to protect them from scale insects, and 

 their immunity is solely to be explained by the peculiar condi 

 tions of the climate, particularly the extreme dryness of the long 



