ROTATION, OR CHANGE OF CROPS. 125 



of greenish color and of nutty flavor. The coarser sorts 

 are darker in color. To purify it, olive oil is allowed to 

 stand for three or four months in jars or tanks, that all 

 impurities may be deposited. The oil is then put up in 

 bottles for use. The yield of oil varies very much. One 

 to two gallons per tree is considered a fair average, but as 

 high as one cwt. of oil is mentioned as the product of 

 famous trees. The pressed pulp, etc., is used as feed stuff. 



Home made Olive Oil. To those who have a few olive 

 trees the following for getting the oil may be of use. Those 

 who have once tasted the pure article will not be willing to 

 use any other. Crush the olives in a common corn-crusher ; 

 put the pulp thus obtained into bags, and press with lever 

 or screw into a vessel containing water. The pure oil 

 swims on the top of what is thus expressed, and is after 

 skimming, clarified by filtering through blotting paper, 

 which answers the purpose ; the oil, after thus being 

 filtered, is ready for use or market. A lever for crushing 

 may be made from a stout piece of timber, about 20 feet 

 long, fixed at one end by a bolt to a stump or post, with a 

 heavy weight at the other. The bags containing the 

 crushed olives are put under the lever a few feet from the 

 fixed end and the oil pressed out. 



Pickled Olives. For this purpose the fruit is gathered 

 before quite ripe, and soaked for half a day in lye made from 

 one part quicklime to six parts wood ashes, with sufficient 

 water to extract the alkali. The object of this alkaline 

 steep is to extract a portion of the bitter principle peculiar 

 to the fruit. After steeping, the olives are washed in fresh 

 water and then put up in bottles, with a brine of salt and 

 water, in which aromatic herbs may also be placed. Ripe 

 olives are also used for preserving. 



CASTOK-OIL. The plant from which the castor-oil of 

 commerce is made has long claimed a home for itself in the 

 coast country of Northern Australia. On the banks of 

 rivers the trees grow in dense masses, and as a dozen trees 

 throw off about a bushel of seed annually, and each seed 

 may make a plant that bears within a year, the rate of 

 extension while they meet suitable soil is prodigious. To 

 succeed as an oil-yielding crop, the plants require good rich 



