STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 457 



In estimating an orchard, the yield of isolated trees, or trees of great age, 

 occupying considerable areas of ground, must not enter into the basis of 

 calculation of the probable production. The tree mentioned in the San 

 Diego Mission orchard as yielding one hundred and fifty gallons of berries 

 was more than fifty feet distant from those surrounding it. 



My agent while traveling in Europe through the olive districts, measured 

 a tree growing in the "Alpes Maritimes" that was eight feet in diameter 

 six feet above the ground, and at the ground fifteen feet in diameter. Only 

 a few trees of such size could be grown on one acre. 



A. Coutance, Professeur des Sciences Naturelles aux Ecoles de Medecine de la 

 Marine of France, compiled a very exhaustive work on the olive, published 

 in Paris, in 1877, from which I copy and translate as follows: "Large 

 olive trees occupy one thousand square feet of ground — that is, require to 

 be distant from each other about thirty-three feet; will produce every sec- 

 ond year thirty-seven gallons of berries, and occasionally as much as one 

 hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty gallons. One tree, nine 

 years old and nine inches in diameter, will produce sixteen and one fifth 

 gallons; one twelve inches in diameter, twenty-four gallons. The meas- 

 urement and number of trees occupying one hectare (two and a half acres) 

 is given as follows: fifteen trees twelve inches in diameter; seventy-five 

 trees nine inches in diameter; sixty trees five inches in diameter; total, one 

 hundred and fifty trees. Product of the same, three thousand gallons of 

 berries." This would be equal to one thousand two hundred gallons to the 

 acre. Another authority gives two thousand two hundred and fifty gallons 

 per hectare. Still another gives two thousand one hundred and fifty. All 

 of the above results once in two years. Several authorities quoted by the 

 same author reckon two hundred trees to each hectare. This would be 

 eighty trees to the acre, and distant apart twenty-three and one half feet. 

 French cultivators give the quantity of oil contained in a given quantity 

 of fruit as one eighth, and in weight one tenth; that is, eight gallons of 

 berries to one gallon of oil, and about fifty pounds of berries to one gallon 

 of oil. Taking the average quantity of the production as given above, 

 from a mature orchard, we have in oil, per tree, two to two and a half gal- 

 lons every second year. This result is obtained by thorough fertilizing, 

 without which the berries would yield but little oil. 



Olive trees grown from seeds are not removed from the nursery until 

 about seven years old; grown from cuttings, they bear in Europe as early 

 as they do in California. 



The newness and richness of our soil will probably give, the first fifty 

 years, double the best results given in those countries where oil making has 

 been the business for so many generations. Our climate is congenial to the 

 habit of the tree; it blooms from the first to the tenth of May, and the fruit 

 forms from the first to the tenth of June. At this season we have our best 

 weather, free from extremes of either cold or heat. Nowhere in the world 

 are all the conditions so favorable to the perfect fruit-bearing. 



Article IV. — Fruit Picking. 



i 



The olive usually ripens in November. In some localities in eastern 

 countries, during favorable years, the fruit picking for oil begins as early as 

 October, and for pickling, in September. In Santa Barbara, the crop of 

 last year (1880), as also that of 1878, was unusually late in ripening, not 

 being ready to pick before the middle of January — a delay of fully two 

 months — the cause no doubt owing to the extraordinary rainfall of these 

 two years. In 1878 we had after the middle of February, and up to the 



