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lack of nourishment, Lime, potash, and bone dust are excellent fertilizers 

 for tbe Olive, and manures containing them are valuable. Ordinary 

 farmyard manure is also a certain and effective material. In applying 

 manures, either special or ordinary, it is advisable to give light and 

 frequent dressings in preference to heavy ones at long intervals. A light 

 yearly dressing is, for instance, better than a heavier one once in two or 

 three years. Manuring, if necessary, should be done immediately after 

 the fruit has been gathered. Mulching will be of great assistance to 

 Olive trees, as, though they will stand the effects of dry weather better 

 than most other fruits, yet they will be more thrifty when the surface 

 soil is screened from the full effects of a burning sun and drying winds in 

 the summer. 



MAKING OIL. 



Olives for oil should be gathered as soon as they become fully ripe, 

 and the time for maturing will often vary considerably, according to the 

 variety and locality. Consequently, the season for gathering in some 

 countries extends over two or three months. The most careful Olive 

 cultivators in Europe gather the fruit by hand, but it is a common 

 practice in Spain and Italy to knock it off the trees with sticks. Another 

 common practice is to wait till the fruit falls from over-ripeness. Hand 

 picking is certainly the best, though the more expensive and least 

 expeditious method, as it allows the fruit to be gathered in the best 

 possible condition, and the trees are not injured. The extraction of the 

 oil may be effected in various ways, and requires no special skill on the 

 part of the grower. When the fruit is gathered it is usually spread out 

 on a wooden or earthen floor two or three inches deep for three or four 

 days, so that it can dry to some extent without heating. In this condition 

 the fruit may be kept for two or three weeks if necessary without injury. 

 Care must, however, be taken not to keep the fruit too long before 

 pressing, or the oil may turn rancid. The method of extraction most 

 generally adopted is to reduce the fruit to a pulp, after which it is placed 

 in coarse linen sacks, and subjected to a regular and heavy pressure. In 

 Spain the sacks are made from Esparto Grass, which has a strong wiry 

 fibre, is cheap, and answers the purpose well. It is not advisable to fill 

 the crushing sacks to their full capacity, as a little slackness is essential to 

 the free extraction of the oil. After the Olives have been put through 

 the press the cakes of pulp are broken up and subjected to a second 

 pressure, and this process is again repeated if necessary. The juice, as it 

 runs from the press, is received in vessels to settle. Much of the foreign 

 matter quickly separates, the oil appearing upon the surface, and must be 

 skimmed off from time to time The liquor should also be occasionally 

 stirred to facilitate the rising of the oil. Some makers follow the plan of 

 running the juice, by means of pipes, into tanks of cold water in order to 

 obtain the oil quickly. The proportion of oil to the juice will, as a 

 matter of course, vary to some extent according to the varieties, some 

 being much richer than others. The degree of ripeness also has its 

 influence, fully matured fruit being richer in oil. The proportion will 



