MiS 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



THE OLIVE INDUSTRY IN SHASTA COUNTY. 



By Geo. A. Lamiman, County Horticultural Commissioner, Anderson, Cal. 



Shasta County is destined to become the greatest olive producing section o£ the 

 United States. 

 The olive has its sentimental side, being an emblem o£ peace. It was brought to 



this state by the Franciscan friars before there was 

 any thought of the American Revolution and was one 

 of the earliest cultivated fruits of California. It is 

 only of recent years that the northern races have 

 learned to appreciate the value of the olive as food 

 and because of the wholesome oil made from it. 

 Today the demand for the ripe pickled olive and 

 olive oil is growing by leaps and bounds. The olive 

 is coming to its own as the nation learns the real 

 value of a staple product. 



The olive lias many advantages as an orchard 

 product. It thrives on gravelly land, which other- 

 wise looks hopeless to the farmer who has become 

 used to rich deep loams. While the tree begins to 

 bear in its fourth or fifth year and becomes important 

 in a few years more, it is still a young tree when it 

 is 100 years old. The olive blooms late in the spring, 

 when there is little danger from frosts or late rains, 

 and ripens over a considerable period, making it com- 

 paratively easy for the grower to gather his fruit. 

 Shasta County has within its borders one of the 

 largest olive groves in the slate, the Monte Vista grove in Happy Valley. This grove 

 having 120 acres, now in full bearing, demonstrates the adaptability of the soil and 

 climate to olive culture. The fruit here ripens two weeks earlier than in sections 

 farther south, and this makes the crop more desirable for pickling and oil purposes, 

 permitting a longer producing season, thus increasing plant capacity. The planting 

 of olives at the Monte Vista grove has been extended the past three or four years 

 until now the acreage has increased in this holding to about one thousand acres. 

 The trees are planted 40 feet each way and inter/planted with peach or plums of 

 good shipping qualities, which come into bearing somewhat earlier than the olive 

 and may remain a number of years before being removed and the land given over to 

 the olive entirely. 



The land area available for olive culture in Shasta County is large, as many 

 thousands of acres of bench lands are suitable for their culture. The olive in Shasta 

 County is absolutely free from all insect pests and diseases. No black scale or olive 

 knot have ever been found here and the most rigid inspection is given to all incoming 

 stock, for planting, to guard against any importation of pests or disease. The olive 

 responds to good care as well as other orchard trees. After the crop is gathered 

 broken and interfering branches are removed and the tree is thinned out to let in 

 sunshine and air. Cover crops of vetch and oats are grown during the fall and 

 winter season and are plowed under in the spring. This has been practiced now 

 for several seasons and the results are very noticeable and lands so treated are in 

 better condition as to retention of moisture and tillage. The vetch is inoculated 

 with the proper bacteria with good results, a better growth showing each season. 



