72 



that this view may have originated in a natural reluctance to lop off large 

 branches from grafted and fruit-bearing trees. 



In Granada, the planting practice in vogue appeared to me essentially 

 different. In this province one meets frequently with what appear to be 

 trees with four main branches, of approximately similar dimensions, starting 

 immediately from the soil, like the trunks of four separate trees. And, 

 effectively, this is what they are. Instead of establishing from the outset 

 a single tree, in this district they appear to plant out four stout truncheons, 

 about 2in. to 2Jin. in diameter, on the angles of a square, with a side of about 

 20in. to 24in. All four truncheons are allowed to strike root and form, 

 eventually, four separate trees, starting approximately from the same spot. 



It would appear that in Spain, as I already noted to be the case in Greece, 

 olive trees are always grafted at a considerable distance above ground, fre- 

 quently 5ft. to 6ft. The graft is protected by a coat of moist clay, maintained 

 in position by a strip of white calico. 



According to the somewhat conflicting statements of growers I had occasion 

 to interview, the distances apart at which trees are planted vary from 8 paces 

 to 14 paces, which I take to be 24ft. to 42ft. This represents from 25 to 76 

 trees to the acre. It appears to be the general practice to adopt rather close 

 planting on the richer types of soil. On the whole, the Spanish olive trees 

 did not impress me much with their size. It appears to be a very common 

 practice to grow cereal crops between the rows of olive trees ; barley generally 

 being preferred for the purpose. The lattei is sown in autumn at the rate 

 of 55lbs. to the acre, and they generally count on a yield of about 15 to 20 

 times the amount of seed sown, that is to say, about 16bush. to 22bush. to 

 the acre. Normally, olive groves not under cereals are supposed to be 

 ploughed three times in the course of a year, namely, in January, in March, 

 and in May. In this connection it may be stated that whilst I certainly 

 saw in Andalusia some very well-tilled olive groves, examples were not want- 

 ing of almost complete neglect and abandonment. It should be added 

 that the 1910 crop was an almost complete failure, which may in some 

 measure account for the apathy of some of the growers. 



Pruning practice I found to vary much on the same lines as is the case in 

 the olive-growing districts of the south of France. All growers I questioned 

 were absolutely unanimous on the absolute necessity of pruning the trees, 

 if one wished to secure good crops. Some, however, preferred pruning the 

 trees rather heavily in alternate years, whilst others were in favor of regular 

 yearly pruning. As far as I was able to see, growers, in their pruning opera- 

 tions, appeared to aim at maintaining the trees well within control ; nowhere 

 did I see very large overgrown trees. 



The pickling olives invariably of the Queen olive variety are always 

 individually hand-picked ; whilst olives to be used in the manufacture of 



