202 FLORIDA FRUITS OLIVES AND PECANS. 



and other counties. The climate is suitable, the soil equally 

 so, for, while this famous tree will grow luxuriantly in a 

 clay soil, if well fertilized, it delights in a dry, sandy loam, 

 and planted in such is thoroughly at home. 



It bears fruit at two or three years old, increasing up to 

 its fiftieth year, and in its sixth year, if it has been well 

 cared for, begins to repay the expense of cultivation, even 

 if the ground between the trees is not otherwise employed, 

 and there is no reason why it should not be cultivated to 

 annual crops, just as a young orange grove may be. 



The olive, as we have mentioned, likes a dry soil; its 

 roots run down deeply, and find all the water they need 

 far below the surface. In California the olive growers 

 claim that it is the only tree that needs no irrigation, es- 

 pecially in the foot-hills of Santa Barbara County, and 

 around San Jose; here the frequent fogs are found to 

 yield sufficient surface moisture for the olive, and for the 

 olive alone. 



Certain it is that it never suffers from drought. The 

 first olive trees in California, and presumably in the United 

 States, were planted years ago by the old Jesuit Fathers at 

 the " Spanish Mission," north of Monterey, and the first 

 regular orchard was set out at San Jose, thirty years ago. 



From these trees came the now celebrated Mission olives 

 so popular in the State of their adoption. Oil sweet, rich, 

 and agreeable to the taste, has been made in California 

 and has met a ready sale, but all the olive oil at present 

 produced, and there is a large acreage now in bearing, is 

 not sufficient to supply the demand from the druggists 

 alone ; and if all the land in California and in Florida 

 suited to the culture of this valuable tree, were now 

 planted and yielding olives, the supply would still be in- 

 sufficient ; or at the best, not more than equal to the de- 

 mand, for good, honest olive oil is needed every where; 



