PACIFIC TREE AND VINE 



The Olive in California 



The future of the olive in C - 

 fornia is a problemetical question. 

 There is hardly any section of our 

 State, outside of the higher moun- 

 tains and the desert areas, where 

 the olive will not flourish. It has 

 been a very popular fruit during the 

 past decade, and men with>,full faith 

 in its future have set out thousands 

 of acres of trees, most of which are 

 now coming into bearing, and we 

 are at last brought face to face with 

 the question, What shall we do with 



By JOHN ISAAC 



and which they will have to over- 

 come before jtheir industry is estab- 

 lished upon a permanent and pay- 

 ing basis. In the first place the 

 taste for the olive is an acquired 

 one. The great bulk of our people 

 have never been used to eating 

 them, and have to be educated up 

 to it. The same is largely true of 

 the use of olive oil. It has always 

 been an article on sale in the drug 

 ■stores, and has been generally re- 

 garded rather as a medicine than as 



tices. This also requires united 

 action The growers, to a man, 

 should unite to repress the sale of 

 fraudulent oils and doctored pickles 

 and see that only genuine goods are 

 supplied to the public. 



Before the olive industry becomes 

 a success our growers have got to 

 profit by the experience of our wine 

 makers, our dairymen and fruit 

 growers. In all these cases where 

 each individual manufactured his 

 own goods and was forced to mar- 



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our olives? The olive industry has 

 flourished in Europe for all time, 

 and in the L,atin countries it is the 

 poor man's meat. It is part of his 

 daily diet, and the oil takes the 

 place filled with us by hog's lard in 

 cooking. Knowing the popularity 

 of this fruit in Europe, there is no 

 reason why it shotild not be ecjually 

 popular in our own countrv, 

 throughout whicli so many Latins 

 are scattered, and who know so 

 well tlie virtues it possesses as food 

 and niediciup. 



Hut our olive growers have sev- 

 eral (lifirculties to contend agaiu-t, 



a food. The prejudice against the 

 olive both in the form of pickles and 

 oil has got to be overcome and the 

 people taught that it is a healthful, 

 pleasant and proper article of food. 

 This will rec^uire time and united 

 effort on the part of the growers. 

 A second difficulty to be overcome 

 is the fraudulent practice of selling 

 spurious oils, cotton.seed, lard and 

 nut oil, and at prices for which it 

 is impossible to produce the genuine 

 article. The users of olive oil should 

 be m.'ide to know that they are be- 

 ing swindled and their health en- 

 dangered by these fraudulent prac- 



ket them individually, he made a 

 failure Tiiere was no uniformity 

 of quality, and no means of easily 

 reaching the consuming public. 

 The establishment of central cream- 

 eries, great wineries and canneries 

 and driers. The adoption of a sys- 

 tem of grading and selling the goods 

 under the brand of a great estab- 

 lishment, have given the consumers 

 a guarantee of quality and made a 

 steady deniaiid. 



Our olive men have got to organ- 

 ize. Their fruit must be worked 

 up at great central establishments, 

 and put up under their brand with 



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