106 [ THE OLIVE TREE 



suckers and truncheons, has no tap-root, and is essentially 

 a surface feeder, and it is therefore advisable during 

 the operation of trenching, not to trench too deep 

 and not to cut too many of the surface roots in order 

 not to impair the full cropping capacity of the trees. 

 Deep ploughing within 2 metres from the trunk is 

 very injurious to the root-system, and if often repeated 

 may result in the death of the tree. Green-manuring 

 is very recommendable, but as it implies the loss of 

 a good crop of vetches it is more economical to apply 

 instead a dressing of stable manure 'at the time of 

 the first hoeing in autumn. 



The olive tree will bear much hard pruning without 

 serious injury to its health, but this peculiarity is 

 too often abused to the detriment of the crop. The 

 common practice is to prune the olive tree early in 

 spring, during the week preceding Palm Sunday, to 

 utilize, the twigs for those festivities. The twigs are 

 tied up in small bundles and sold at twice or thrice the 

 price which they would fetch if sold as firewood at 

 another period of the year. There would be no ill 

 consequences if some thinning is done every third year, 

 with the above object in view, but unfortunately most 

 cultivators are unwilling to lose the opportunity of 

 immediate profit, and therefore they mostly prune their 

 trees every second year, and sometimes every year, with 

 the result that the tree is allowed no chance to recuperate 

 as a fruit tree, the fruit being produced chiefly, not on 

 the strong upright growth, but on the thin loosely 

 hanging twigs formed in the preceding year. Autumn 

 pruning is performed soon after the crop is gathered and 

 presents the advantage that it can be performed without 

 undue haste to catch the market for green twigs, and 

 without the temptation to cut as many twigs as possible 

 for sale. On the other hand spring pruning is often 

 delayed until the approach of Palm Sunday so that 

 the trees may be already showing the flowers and the 



