204 FLORIDA FRUITS OLIVES AND PECANS. 



illustrates this point. Mr. Jackson, in his "Account of 

 the Empire of Morocco," mentions a large plantation of 

 olive trees near Messa, which struck him as being, to say 

 the least, very whimsical in the arrangement of the trees, 

 for they were planted here, there, every where, sometimes 

 in large groups, sometimes in small, sometimes singly, and 

 again in short rows or angles ; order nowhere, eccentricity 

 reigning supreme. 



Inquiry brought to light the history of this unique plan- 

 tation, it was as follows : 



" I learned from the viceroy's aide-de-camp, who attended 

 me, that one of the kings of the dynasty of Saddia, being 

 on his journey to Soudan, encamped here with his army ; 

 that the pegs with which the cavalry picketed their horses 

 were cut from the olive trees in the neighborhood, and that 

 these pegs being left in the ground on account of some 

 sudden cause of the departure of the army, the olive trees 

 in question sprang from them. And the disposition of the 

 trees did exactly resemble the arrangement of cavalry in 

 an encampment." 



From twenty-five to thirty feet is the proper distance for 

 setting the olives in the orchard. 



The proper time for gathering olives for the press is just 

 as they mature ; if they are left too long on the tree the 

 next crop will be a failure, and it is to this fact that the 

 olive tree owes the unjust reputation it has gained in some 

 countries, in Languedoc, Spain, and Italy, for instance, 

 of bearing only on alternate years ; in these countries the 

 crop is gathered in December and January, while in France 

 it is gathered in November, and there the trees bear regu- 

 lar annual crops, while the oil, because the fruit is gath- 

 ered during the first stage of maturity, as soon as it turns 

 purple, is of a better quality and commands the highest 

 prices. 



