OUVE-GROWIXG AXD PRODUCTIOX IX SPAIX 1 73 1 



districts the process is reversed ; in the autumn a mound is thrown up 

 Toand the tree as a protection against drought and in the spring the mound 

 is destroyed. 



IManures are very little employed in olive-growing. Up to recent 

 years only the olive-groves in the neighbourhood of towns received a little 

 dung. Today superphosphate is used in Andalusia and in the province 

 of \''alentia while some more ad\-anced agriculturists have begu n to employ 

 complete mineral manures. 



As regards pruning there are no definite regulations. Ten or twelve 

 years after the planting of the cutting the branches of the tree are first 

 pruned but with great moderation ; only after twenty or twenty-five years 

 are the trees thoroughly pruned at regular inter\-als. In the eastern pro- 

 vinces, in Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia, pruning is carried out every 

 two years ; in Andahisia every three or four years ; in New Castille ever>' 

 six years. The number of branches suppressed is variable. In many parts 

 of Andalusia, the pruning of the young shoot? under the name of " tala " 

 is ver}' thorough and is followed in the next year by the removal of the 

 superfluous older branches. Every thirty or forty years the trees are hea- 

 vily trimmed and a new surface of wood exposed ; this process gives new 

 vigour to the tree and is carried out successively on the different stocks 

 of each olive grove. 



The different practices observed in this work are probably due not 

 merely to local custom, but partly to local variations in growth as the 

 result of the diverse climatic conditions, and of the use of different varie- 

 ties of the tree. 



In the warmer regions the fruit is gathered in the autumn months ; 

 in the other districts in the winter. As a rule gathering takes place later 

 than is necessary to obtain a good qualit}' in the fruit, but this mistake 

 is being corrected in the chief centres of production. 



In almost all Andalusia the fruit is knocked down with long poles and 

 the practise is justified by the great height of the trees ; an exception is 

 made for olives which are destined for table fruits. In the central districts 

 hand-picking is known as " ordeno " - a word which is also employed 

 for the milking of cows goats etc. 



More than half the olive groves in Spain are culti\'ated without the 

 presence of another crop. Where the nature of the soil is suitable, cereals, 

 the vine, the almond and the hazel are grown with the olive. Cereals and 

 the vine are the crojis usually found in the olive groves ; but the almond 

 is predominant in the east and the hazel in Catalonia. 



Development .^xd present coxdition of the olive productiox. 



The modern development of olive growing in Spain has been very 

 slow in comparison to the progress made in the cultivation of other crops 

 such as the vine and the orange. "L'Annuario estadistico de Espana " 

 in 1858 gives the area devoted to olive-growing as 2 080 226 acres. 



