STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 459 



way to do the work, and the plan that I have adopted. The circumference 

 of the trough depends somewhat on the size of the stone. The one I am 

 using is four feet high, six inches thick, and the diameter of the trough in 

 which it works, six feet; the length of the beam fifteen feet. This crusher 

 is amply sufficient for an orchard of one thousand trees, but too small for 

 my purpose. It cost about $50. 



A stone five feet in diameter and two feet thick would crush in eight 

 hours a sufficient quantity of berries to make one hundred gallons of oil, 

 and by working it night and day, the crop of ten thousand trees. It would 

 be better, however, to have two stones half the thickness of the above, one 

 following the other in the same groove. The horse should work on the 

 outside of the building containing the crusher. 



To make one hundred gallons of oil each day would require two good 

 presses. The one best adapted for the purpose, so far as I have seen, is 

 that used for making oleomargarine. Such presses could, with very little 

 expense, be worked by the horse power used for crushing the berries, so 

 that one man could do all the crushing and pressing. 



The press I am using is an old fashioned wooden beam press, such as 

 used in the New England and Middle States for making cider. The beam 

 is twenty-six feet long, and with a heavy box filled with rock suspended at 

 the extreme end, the power can be increased to one hundred and fifty tons. 

 The press with the differential pulleys costs about -$150. Such a press can- 

 not be improved upon for expressing the oil, but the additional labor, and 

 the time lost in changing, is so much greater than what would be required 

 for the oleomargarine invention, that the latter would facilitate the work, 

 and be cheaper in the end, besides taking up so much less room. 



The crushed olives are put in the press in cheeses about three feet square 

 and three inches thick, with wooden slats between each cheese. Ten or 

 more cheeses can be put in at each pressing. I use coarse linen cloth to 

 contain the crushed olives. 



The fluid that is expressed is put in large tanks and left for sixty to 

 ninety days, when the oil will separate, and, being lighter, will rise to the 

 top, where it can be drawn off. The pomace, after the first pressing, is 

 recrushed, and by pouring hot water over it, a second quality of oil is 

 expressed. The refuse can then be used either for fuel, for feed for pigs, 

 or for making still a third quality of oil; if for the latter, it is thrown in 

 vats, boiling water poured over it, and left to ferment, when the oil still 

 remaining will be liberated and rise to the top. 



Article VI. — Filtering and Clarifying. 



This is a simple process. The most common method is to have a series 

 of five or six boxes, one above the other, each with cotton batting in the 

 bottom; the oil passing the sixth will be beautifully clear and ready for 

 market. I use cylindrical tin vessels holding about three gallons each, 

 one fitting in the other in tiers of three, with fine wire sieves in the bottom 

 of each. On these sieves I place two or three layers of cotton batting. 

 The oil is passed from one tier to the other until clear. The clarifying can 

 be done by the sunlight; also, it can be bleached and made much lighter 

 in color, but not without injuring it. When it is adulterated, artificial 

 heat is necessary in the process. When once heated it loses a part of the 

 nutty flavor, and is liable to become rancid when exposed to the air. It' 

 should be kept in an ordinarily cool place, not exposed to sunlight or heat, 

 neither should it be handled any more than is absolutely necessary in the 

 filtering and bottling, and should not be shaken after bottling. The mucil- 



