RIPE OLIVE REQUIREMENTS 357 



made than the ripe pickles, as there is less danger of spoiling and 

 they can be kept in casks of brine as ordinary pickles are. 



Canning the Ripe Olive. Canned olives, put upon the market in 

 the same form as other canned fruit, have recently become popular. 

 There are special canneries for their preparation at several points 

 in the State and the general canneries also handle olives in consid- 

 erable quantities. The process is in the main like that of canning 

 other fruits, but special points have to be learned through experi- 

 ence, and an outfit suitable for large scale work is needed for com- 

 mercial production. Owing to danger of unwholesomeness in ripe 

 pickled olives, the following requirements by the California Board 

 of Health are now complied with by commercial canners : 



Ripe olives must be sterilized in canning at a temperature of 240 degrees 

 Fahrenheit for not less than forty minutes by means of a retort controlled 

 by an automatic self-recording thermometer device in proper working or- 

 der. It is within the power of the U. S. Bureau of Food and Drugs and 

 California State Board of Health to sieze and condemn all ripe olives not 

 produced in conformity with these regulations. The enforcement of these 

 regulations removes all danger from ripe olive poisoning. 



VARIETIES OF THE OLIVE GROWN IN CALIFORNIA 



Many varieties of the olive were brought to California from 

 southern Europe previous to 1890. Fifty-seven varieties were an- 

 alyzed and elaborately reported upon by the University experts, and 

 of these about fifteen varieties at first promised to rise to commer- 

 cial account, but many of them have been dropped. It is an inter- 

 esting fact, however, that .in spite of the efforts put forth to secure 

 a better olive than the old Mission variety, this old sort still heads 

 the list. 



The following are the varieties now being propagated in Cali- 

 fornia on a commercial scale, arranged approximately in the order 

 of their present popularity : Mission ; Manzanillo ; Sevillano ; Asco- 

 lano. 



Other varieties are sometimes used for pickling and oil, and are 

 retained in the list, largely for old acquaintance sake : 



The Mission Olive. By this name is signified the variety found growing 

 at the old missions in California. It has long been known that the so-called 

 Mission olive embraced several varieties, or sub-varieties at least. 



Common or Broad-Leaved Mission Olive. The variety of olive most gen- 

 erally known as the Mission; ovate, oblique sometimes very much so the 

 pit straight or slightly curved, fruit very variable in size, growing singly 

 or in clusters of two or three, or even five; time of ripening, late, in the 

 coast region sometimes not before February, but generally in December; in 

 interior localities in November; tree vigorous and a good bearer, preferred 

 by picklers. 



Redding Picholine. Imported by the late B. B. Redding, and supposed to 

 be a large pickling variety, but it proved to be a small seedling a shoot 

 coming from the root below the graft, probably. It roots very readily from 

 cuttings and is used as a stock on which to graft improved varieties. 



Oblonga. Imported by John Rock from France. An olive of a peculiar, 

 club-like shape, being narrow at the stem end, broad at the point, rounded 

 and strongly oblique; generally pointed at both ends. The pulp loses its 



