STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 465 



The remedy that I have finally adopted, as being the most effectual, is the application 

 of kerosene oil, and as laid down on page 3 of the report of the Los Angeles convention, 

 held one year ago. 



I refer you to the discussions on this subject at the various conventions; also the 

 reports of the State Hoard of Horticulture, and especially to the remedies recently recom- 

 mended by P>. M. Lelong, of Los Angeles. 



To sum up: I copy from my report published in the last biennial report of the State 

 Board, on page 50: "The olive is a rapid grower, and bears abundant crops. It would 

 seem to be the tree of all others that should claim the attention of the people, and the 

 planting be encouraged. There is, however, much yet to learn to enable the grower to 

 keep his trees free from the black scale. No other tree seems to yield so readily to the 

 attack. The increase is so rapid, and the insect so persistent, that it is yet a question 

 whether in large areas, closely planted, it can be kept in check at a cost that the fruit will 

 warrant." 



Mb. Thompkins: I desire to ask the best varieties? 



Mr. Cooper: That is a question 1 cannot answer ; all my experience is with the common 

 Mission variety. 



Mr. Wilcox : We have several varieties in the nurseries of Santa Clara County that 

 were exhibited at our fair this fall in pots that were bearing — several new varieties that 

 were considered profitable. The old Mission kind we have at Santa Clara; have been 

 planted there, perhaps, seventy-five years, and they have been bearing, and there they 

 have made their own oil. We have an extensive plantation there up towards the hills, 

 and they consider the old variety a good variety; nevertheless, they are experimenting 

 with these new kinds. 



Mr. Gray: I would ask if any pickles have been made as yet that will compare with 

 the imported. 



Mr. Cooper: I have heard it stated that Mr. Del Valle, who has recently deceased, has 

 put up some pickled olives that are far superior to anything that was ever imported into 

 this country, and I think that the Kimball Brothers, in San Diego, have arrived at perfect 

 success in pickling the Mission olive. 



Mr. Hatch: I would like to say that I have met different people who have been used to 

 olives all their lives, and good olives, and who have said that they have eaten better olives, 

 to their taste, at Frank Kimball's, in San Diego, than anywhere in the world. 



Article X. — Translation. 



[This chapter I have copied entire from the French of Bertille, being a 

 history, culture, 'products, and the effect on the public health, etc, which I 

 translate, as follows :] 



The touching story of the flight of the dove from Noah's ark, related in 

 Genesis, proves the existence of the olive tree in the earliest period of the 

 world's history. 



It was a celebrated tree among the ancients. It held the first rank in 

 their mythology; Minerva taught the Athenians how to prepare the fruit, 

 and they had a most religious respect for it. The oil was used mostly in 

 religious ceremonies by the ancients. The Romans used the wood not only 

 as fuel, but on the altars of their gods; it was the emblem of peace. 



The olive tree transported from Egypt to Attica, belongs to the jasmine 

 family, with evergreen foliage, small blossoms in clusters, and having some 

 likeness to the elder tree flowering in June. It can be propagated in many 

 ways, but the best way is by planting the seeds, and it is one which is prac- 

 ticed least. Except in damp soils where its roots rot, the olive grows every- 

 where. It accustoms itself to both dry and wet climates. Clay and mud 

 are indifferent to it. Its long life is proverbial. In return it takes thirty 

 years, a man's lifetime, before it reaches its full capacity for bearing fruit. 

 Of this tree, one of the most valuable gifts of nature, there exists sixteen 

 or seventeen species, all exotic. Its fruit is oval, fleshy, with a hard woody 

 seed inclosing a kernel. The meat fine, and covered with a green skin 

 before its maturity, softens and becomes a purplish black in ripening ; it is 

 then that they grind them in the mill, then put them in a press to extract 

 the oil. 



With some exceptions, one may say that in the Mediterranean Basin, 

 from the thirty-fifth degree to the forty-third degree of latitude, is sur- 

 rounded with a belt of olive trees. It is from this region that all Europe 

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