THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 413 



been planted more than 100 years ago, are today producing a larger 

 quantity of better olives than when they were younger ; and in Europe 

 and Asia the trees are still producing at the remarkable age of several 

 hundred years. 



Besides its wonderful longevity, the olive is remarkably free from 

 pests, in fact entirely so in portions of the Sacramento Valley. 



With consistent care, the olive is a regular and prolific bearer. 

 Another important feature is that the entire crop can be utilized. Fruit 

 too small for pickles, and frozen or otherwise damaged fruit, can be 

 used for oil and other by-products. 



As a delightfully healthful, nourishing food, the ripe olive cannot be 

 surpassed, and the number of uses to which it can be successfully put 

 is constantly increasing — as a substitute for indigestible mushrooms, for 

 instance. 



-The development of the market has hardly begun. To illustrate this: 

 if New York City ate as many olives per capita as the little town of 

 Oroville does, California, with its present acreage, could not supply this 

 large center alone. 



And lastly, but of prime importance, an olive grove is a sure, consist- 

 ent, everlasting revenue producer, and is indeed, as the old Spanish 

 proverb has it, "A gold mine on top of the ground." 



However, if the olive industry in California is to gain the important 

 place it logically deserves : 



First — The State must do for the olive what it has done for other 

 fruits — establish an experiment station, and experiment in pruning, 

 fertilization, cross-pollination, etc., and for larger sized and earlier 

 ripening fruit. 



Second — Oil must be considered as a by-product only. 



Third — The growlers must give their orchards better and more con- 

 sistent care, thereby increasing the proportion of good quality pickling 

 fruit; and the prospective growers must plant proven varieties, in 

 proven districts, according to proven methods. 



Fourth — The market now so undeveloped must be enlarged to keep 

 pace with the increase of production, by standardizing the pack, by a 

 co-operative and consistent campaign of advertising, and by a sys- 

 tematic campaign of education as to the diversified uses of the olive and 

 its b3^-products. 



Fifth — For the past three years, perhaps, we have been trying to 

 strangle the goose that lays the golden eggs by cramming tasteless 

 green olives down its throat. This year's carry-over stock is largely the 

 result of this short-sighted and unfortunate policy, and therefore the 

 growers and packers must above all combine to the end that ripe olives, 

 and ripe olives only, are pickled ; and the selling of pickled green olives 

 under a ripe olive label must be forever stopped. 



Upon the ripe olive — how it is grown, how cured, and how marketed 

 — depends the future of the olive industry in California ; and the olive 

 industry can become one of the biggest and most important fruit indus- 

 tries in the State. 



