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away these trees, and the same ground in corn would not support a 

 single family. A pound of oil, which can be bought for three or four 

 pence sterling, is equivalent to many pounds of flesh, by the quantity 

 of vegetables it will prepare, and render fit and comfortable food. 

 Without this tree, the country of Provence and territory of Genoa 

 would not support one-half, perhaps not one-third, their present in- 

 habitants. The nature of the soil is of little consequence if it be 

 dry. The trees are planted from fifteen to twenty feet apart, and when 

 tolerably good, will yield fifteen or twenty pounds of oil yearly, one 

 with another. There are trees which yield much more. They begin to 

 render good crops at twenty years old, and last till killed by cold, 

 which happens at some time or other, even in their best positions in 

 France. But they put out again from their roots. In Italy, I am told, 

 they have trees two hundred years old. They afford an easy but con- 

 stant employment through the year, and require so little nourishment, 

 that if the soil be fit for any other production, it may be cultivated 

 among the olive trees without injuring them. The northern limits of 

 this tree are the mountains of the Cevennes, from about the meridian 

 of Carcassonne to the Rhone, and from thence, the Alps and Apennines 

 as far as Genoa, I know, and how much farther I am not informed. 

 The shelter of these mountains may be considered as equivalent to a 

 degree and a-half of latitude, at least, because westward of the 

 commencement of the Cevennes, there are no olive trees in 43|-° or 

 even 43° of latitude, whereas, we find them now on the Rhone at 

 Pierrelatte, in 44|°, and formerly they were at Tains, above the mouth 

 of the Isere, in 45°, sheltered by the near approach of the Cevennes 

 and Alps, which only leave there a passage for the Rhone. Whether 

 such a shelter exists or not in the States of South Carolina and 

 Georgia, I know not. But this we may say, either that it exists or 

 that it is not necessary there, because we know that they produce the 

 orange in open air; and wherever the orange will stand at all, experi- 

 ence shows that the olive will stand well, being a hardier tree. 

 Notwithstanding the great quantities of oil made in France, they have 

 not enough for their own consumption, and therefore import from other 

 countries. This is an article, the consumption of which will always 

 keep pace with its production. Raise it, and it begets it own demand. 

 Little is carried to America, because Europe has it not to spare. 

 We, therefore, have not learned the use of it. But cover the southern 

 States with it, and every man will become a consumer of oil, within 

 whose reach it can be brought in point of price. If the memory of 

 those persons is held in great respect in South Carolina who introduced 

 there the culture of rice, a plant which sows life and death with al- 

 most equal hand, what obligations would be due to him who should in- 

 troduce the olive tree, and set the example of its culture! Were the 

 owner of slaves to view it only as the means of bettering their condi- 

 tion, how much would he better that by planting one of those trees for 

 every slave he possessed! Having been myself an eye witness to the 



