32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1899. 



even sharp scorching by tire suffices to destroy its life. " So 

 long as there is a fragment remaining, though externally the 

 tree looks as dry as a post, yet does it continue to bear its load 

 of oily berries, and for twenty generations the owner gathers 

 fruit from the faithful old patriarch. This tree also requires 

 but little labor or care of any kind, and, if long neglected, will 

 revive again when the ground is dug or ploughed, and yield as 

 before. Vineyards forsaken die out almost immediately, and 

 mulberry orchards neglected run rapidly to ruin ; but not so 

 the olive. Though they may not have been attended to for half 

 a century, yet they continue to be a source of income to their 

 owners." 



These peculiarities Virgil observed and carefully noted in his 

 Georgics nearly two thousand years ago : — 



" But on the other hand, no culture needs 

 Tlie olive tree at all; not it the knife 

 Forthcurved expects, nor clinging hoe, when once 

 It in the field is fixed, and bears the breeze. 

 To it the earth, its bosom loosened up 

 By furrows of the ploughshare's hook-like tooth, 

 Sufficient moisture gives, and gives the plough 

 Returns of weighty fruitage rich and ripe." 



— Georgic, II., p. 420. 



" Why, cleave an olive tree's dry stump, and, strange 

 And wondrous strange to tell, an olive root 

 Will from the dry wood come! " 



Frequently a whole village will unite and plant a grove in 

 common. Then not even the berries that fall to the ground are 

 allowed to be picked, till a proclamation is issued by the head 

 man of the village or the governor of the province. A tree 

 yields from ten to lifteen gallons of oil, and the profits are 

 al)out one hundred dollars to the acre. It is claimed that the 

 tree bears only every other year; but this is due probably to 

 the vicious manner of gathering the fruit, — beating the branches 

 with long poles to shake off the berries, and, in so doing, 

 bruising and destroying the tender buds that are setting for the 

 next year's crop. 



The husks with which the prodigal son would fain have tilled 



