196 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



mer suffered most from the cold. This wiiter 

 also says that the sweet orauge does not suc- 

 ceed well iu Tuscany, unless it is protected. 

 " Quoique 1' orange doux de Portugal croisse 

 quelquefois en plein vent, dans des jai'dius 

 bien dcfendus de la bise, cependant il ne 

 reussit beiu qu'en espalier, et autant qu'on 

 pent le preserver des grands froids avec des 

 paillassons."* Id. p. 204. 



Boso, in the article Olivier, Nouveau Cours 

 complet d'Agriculture, t. 9, says that the frost 

 acts injuriously at two periods of the year iu 

 France : the first, during mid-winter, when- 

 ever the thermometer descends lower than 

 ten degrees below zero, (14° of Fahrenheit), 

 then not only the branches but even the 

 ti-unks perish, and they have to be cut down. 

 This was the case in 1709, and in 1788, when 

 most of the olive trees in France were de- 

 sti'oyed to the ground, (see Young's Travels, 

 vol. i. p. 311). The second period is during 

 the spring, when the plant is in vegetation. — 

 This only occasions the loss of one or two 

 crops, by nipping the extreme shoots : but as 

 injury is more frequent fi'om tiiis cause than 

 the former, the effect is nearly the same. — 

 Bosc, who lived sometime in Charleston, at- 

 tributes the neglect of the cultivation of the 

 olive in Carolina, to this latter cause. " C'est 

 cette cause, ainsi que je m'en suis assure sur 

 les lieux qui a empeche les plantations d'oli- 

 viers tentes en Caroline, aux environs de 

 Charleston, climat phis chaiid qit, aucun can- 

 ton de France, de reusairA 



These extracts, wliich are from writers of 

 the highest authority, are interesting, as they 

 show from the growth of the fig, the prome- 

 granate, and the orange, that the climate of 

 the olive region of France is no milder than 

 the maritime districts of South Carolina and 

 Georgia, and the whole of Florida. But the 

 actual growth of the ohve ti'ee itself proves 

 this most conclusively, as far as the limited 

 period which has elapsed smce the introduc- 

 tion of that plant into this country, admits of 

 a comparison. 



I Ijelieve that you had some olive trees 

 gi-owing in Charleston for half a century be- 

 fore the fatal spring of 1835. Ramsey mentions 

 the fruit being pickled from trees imported by 

 Henry Laurens. 



At Duugeness, on Cumberland Island, Ga., 

 a number of ti-ees bore abundantly for many 

 years before that season. 



In 1825, my father imported through a 

 French house in Charleston, two hundred 

 trees from Provence, via the Languedoc Ca- 

 nal and Bordeaux. They were five months 



['■ Translation. — Though the sweet orange of Por- 

 tugal sometimes g;i-ows in the open ground in gar- 

 dens where the north wind is kept out, still it suc- 

 ceeds only on espaliers and when it is protected by 

 mats from the extreme cold. Ed. Farm Lib.] 



[t Translation. — It is this cause, as I am convinced, 

 which has prevented the success of the olive planta- 

 tion attempted in Carolina in the vicinity of Charles- 

 ton, a warmer climate than that of any canton of 

 France. Ed. Farm. Lib.] 



(436) 



on the way, and did not anive mitil May : 

 notwithstanding which, a very few only failed 

 to grow. These trees were planted at Can- 

 non's Point, his residence on St. Simon's 

 Island, latitude 3 1° 20' ; and had borne several 

 small crops of olive, when the severe cold of 

 February, 1835, (8° of Fahrenheit), injured 

 them so much that it was necessaiy to cut 

 them down to the ground. They all threw 

 up shoots from the old stumps ; and many of 

 them had now attamed to a diameter of nine 

 inches. For the last two years they have 

 produced some fruit; and this year about 

 one-half of the trees are bending under the 

 weight of an abundant crop. About one hun- 

 dred trees raised from cuttings are also be- 

 ginning to bear. Is is now twenty-one years 

 since the importation of these trees, and with 

 the exception of the destructive season of 

 1835, they have never, in the slightest degi-ee, 

 been injured by the cold. The last winter 

 was one of unusual severity — tbe thermome- 

 ter having sunk to 19° Fahrenheit ; and al- 

 though the sweet oranges on the same plant- 

 ation were much injured, some having been 

 cut down to the ground, I could not perceive 

 that a single leaf, among two hundred and 

 fifty olive trees, had been touched by the 

 frost. This experience is certainly very sat- 

 isfactory, the more particularly as it is certain 

 that the season of 1835 was the coldest known 

 on this coast for at least one hundred years ; 

 as is proved by the destruction of orange 

 trees on St. Simon's Island, wliich had stood 

 since the occupation of that island by General 

 Oglethorpe, and of others of St. Augustine, 

 which dated still farther back. 



The effect of one such disastrous year should 

 not discourage the introduction of so valuable 

 a tree. In the South of France they have 

 persevered iu its cultivation, although in 1709 

 and 1788 almost every tree was destroyed 

 to the ground ; and they were severely in- 

 jured in 1740, 1745, 1748, 1755, and 1768.— 

 (Nouveau Cours d Agriculture, t. 9, p. 194.) 



With respect to the danger from the frosts 

 of the spring, alluded to by Bosc, it may be 

 observed that very fortunately the olive tree 

 is late in puttmg out its flowers, and that they 

 rarely appear before the eud of April, by 

 which time there is little risk from frosts on 

 this cost. The failure of the crop for one or 

 two years would be the only injury. 



It may be doubted whether the olive tree 

 can be cultivated beyond the influence of the 

 sea air, on the coast of Carolina and Georgia, 

 with the varieties at present known. But it 

 may be hoped that this plant will, in time, 

 become acclimated ; and that, by pursuing 

 the plan of raising from the seed, which has 

 been found to produce hardier plants, new 

 kinds, adapted to a greater range of climate, 

 may iu time be introduced. The gradual ex- 

 tension of the olive, from the southern to the 

 northern shores of the Medit^erranean, would 

 encourage this expectation. The southern 

 coasts of Italy and Spain, which are now the 

 great oil markets of the world, were, during 

 the early periods of Roman history, destitute 



