ORCHARD FRUITS 309 



from Spain by the Franciscan missionaries. The 

 " Mission olive 77 is still widely grown in California. 

 The olive wants a warm, dry climate. It will not stand 

 much cold, and in moist tropical climates it will not 

 bear fruit. So California and Arizona and parts of 

 New Mexico and Texas are the only states of the 

 Union where the olive will grow and bear well. To do 

 its best it needs some irrigation, although it will grow 

 on hill lands with fairly deep soils. 



The flesh of the olive has been pressed for oil from an- 

 cient times, and its oil is used for salads and cooking all over 

 southern Europe instead of lard or butter. California is now 

 producing very good olive oil, but most of that used in the 

 Eastern states still comes from France and Spain. Olive 

 oil has none of the tartness which makes a fresh olive uneat- 

 able. When the tartness is taken out by soaking in weak 

 lye, and the fruit is then put in salt brine, we get the delicious 

 pickled olives. Some are pickled green, but the best are the 

 pickled ripe olives, which are a very good food, easily digested, 

 and are a very common food in Spain and Italy. 



Olive trees are best grown in good uplands. In low, moist 

 ground the fruit is watery and the oil made from it inferior. 

 But it is a mistake to think that olives can be profitably 

 grown in poor, stony lands. Some people who have seen 

 olive orchards in Italy on stony hillsides have not observed 

 that the trees are growing in deep soil thrown up in steps 

 (terraces) by hand, which are kept heavily manured and 

 make fine crops. 



Before Congress enacted the pure-food laws, olive oil was 

 very commonly mixed with cotton-seed and other edible oils, 

 and sold as pure oil. 



