36 DROUGHT RESISTANCE OF OLIVE IN SOUTHWESTERN STATES. 



700 meters (2,300 feet) in Sicily, it being even affirmed that it ascends 

 as high as 800 meters (2,600 feet) on that island. 



Simmonds, in his "Tropical Agriculture," states that the olive 

 grows at Quito, under the equator, at a height of 8,000 feet above sea 



level." 



According to the reports of the Cahfornia State Board of Horti- 

 culture'' the olive does well at an altitude of 3,000 feet at 37 degrees 

 latitude in the Sierra Nevadas. In the southern part of Arizona it 

 is probable that it may thrive at still higher altitudes, possibly at 

 5,000 feet. Nor could a safety hne of altitude alone be defined, for 

 some higher spots favorably situated will be found to be more reliable 

 than lower locations adjacent. 



In California the ohve grows well around San Diego, and from 

 there along the coast northward to the upper end of the State and 

 up into small valleys of the Coast Range. Farther inland the suc- 

 cess would be limited by altitude, but it can be depended upon 

 throughout upland portions of the greater area of the interior val- 

 leys and to altitudes of about 3,000 feet in the foothills. In Arizona 

 areas of olive territory may be looked for as far north as the Gila 

 River in Pinal County and farther west to the north hne of Maricopa 

 County, with probably the western limit at about the meridian of 

 Gila Bend, on account of reduced rainfall. (See Table VIII.) 



Table YIIl .—Localities in Arizona where dry-land olive culture may be possible, ivith 



meteorological record, c 



a " In the neighborhood of Quito, situated under the equator, at a height of 8,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, where the temperature varies even less than in the island climates of the temperate zone, the 

 olive attains the magnitude of the oak, yet never produces fruit."— P. L. Simmonds, Tropical Agricul- 



tUT€ 7). 39-i • 



b Investigation Made by the State Board of Horticulture of the California Olive Industry, Report to 

 Governor Gage, 1900, p. 8. 

 c Annual Summary, 1908, Arizona Section of the Climatological Service of the Weather Bureau. 

 d Mean annual, Weather liureau, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 e Climatology of the United States, Bulletin ",Q," Weather Bureau, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



192 



