Olive Culture. 229 



I have visited at Santa Rosa the hills of Captain Grosse, where he has 

 probably five or six thousand trees, two years old from planting, and I must 

 say that he deserves great credit. He has conferred a lasting boon on 

 the people of Santa Rosa, clearing land that, to my eyes, was absolutely 

 worthless, and planting olive trees. These ohve trees on the ridge of the hill 

 are probably not more than from five to ten rows wide, following the shape 

 of the hill, and in that respect there will be a great advantage in regard to 

 insect pests, because they will have better circulation of air and more sun- 

 light. 



I have growing on my place olive trees in the black adobe, in deep bot- 

 tom land, in sandy land, made from the wash of the mountains, in stony 

 hill-sides and adobe hill-sides, and in table-land, where the subsoil is probably 

 twenty feet deep, dark clay, and, so far as I have known, there is no difier- 

 ence in the bearing of these trees, or in the oil made. The only test I have 

 ever made in regard to the quantities borne by an orchard showed 122 

 pounds of olives per tree throughout the orchard, the trees being seven years 

 old from the cuttings. The best result in making oil has been twelve and a 

 half pounds per tree; the poorest, ten and fifty-five hundredths pounds. I 

 could not say whether this was caused by the different years, or by less care 

 in drying. We have for the tree seven years old at least ten bottles of oil, 

 and those bottles will sell readily anywhere at $1 apiece. 



We commence picking in December, as soon as the olives turn a purple 

 color — some of them probably only a reddish color, with one side partially 

 green. They then require more drying than if picked in the months of 

 March and April, when the water will have evaporated mostly from them. 

 The oil is of a lighter color if made earlier than it is later in the season, but 

 in practice we make it all in the same tank, and I do not apprehend that 

 there is very much difference as to the color of the oil, nor as to the quality. 

 In Europe they dry the berries almost altogether in the sunlight. In the 

 coast counties here that is impossible, because we may have a series of foggy 

 days during the process of drying, and then it would be impossible to carry 

 on the work. 



I have spent probably a dollar to a dollar and a half a tree each year in 

 fighting: the black scale, and can only barely keep it in subjection at that. 

 This black scale seems to have been created for the olive, to make us careful, 

 energetic and persistent. While one washing each year with kerosene 

 emulsion will keep an orange tree, a lemon tree or a lime tree free from the 

 scale, the olive tree requires two or three or four washes to have the same 

 result. My orange trees are just as clear and clean as those grown at River- 

 side, where they have no black scale at all. Of course, there are insects 

 there on the inside, but they are easily kept down by washing with the kero- 

 sene emulsion once a year. On the olive tree, I confess I do not know yet 

 the proper time of year to do this washing. For two or three years we have 

 had so much rain in the winter time that I could not get on the ground. 

 Our wagons were so narrow in the tire, and the ground so soft, that there 



