206 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



warm interior valleys as those of the Salt and Gila rivers 

 in Arizona. The best system of management will be that 

 of early culture during the season of growth, followed by a 

 cover-crop (127) and irrigation at the time of sowing the 

 cow-peas or vetch. While the olive will grow on thin 

 land and will endure drought well, the fruit will suffer. 

 It needs some water during the period of fruit development 

 naturally or by irrigation, and it needs the humus and 

 nitrogen following the use of a leguminous cover-crop. 



203. Propagation of the Olive. The most experienced 

 growers prefer trees for planting propagated by the slower 

 way of growing seedlings and budding them as we grow 

 hardy deciduous trees. Such trees, as might be expected, 

 are more robust, long lived, and productive than those 

 grown from "tips" under glass, which is the commercial 

 plan. The seeds are slow to germinate. But this 

 amounts to little, as growers who will plant no trees from 

 "tip" cuttings (62) stratify the seeds (5) months in 

 advance of planting and keep stratified seeds on hand for 

 use when wanted for planting. 



204. Commercial Olive Products. The ancient use of 

 the olive fruit was mainly for oil-producing. The oil in 

 Canaan, Syria, and central Asia was considered an essen- 

 tial to health in the dry, hot Oriental climate and was 

 regarded as a symbol of peace and good-will. In the land 

 of the East it was the substitute for butter and animal fats 

 and an emblem not only of peace but of domestic plenty 

 and prosperity. But the use of pure olive oil in our day 

 has been lessened in all countries, except central Asia, by 

 the immense production of sunflower oil in Eussia, which 

 is mainly sold for pure olive oil, and about all the oil of 

 commerce is now either adulterated with cotton-seed oil or 

 sunflower oil, and in many cases the " sweet olive oil " and 

 the " Lucca oil " have not a trace of olive oil in the mixture. 



