73 



olive oil are beaten off the trees with light wands and received on a sheet 

 stretched out below. 



In this district I was informed that lOcwts. of olives to the acre would be 

 looked upon as a good crop. How this yield compares with statistical data 

 for the whole country is shown below. It is true that I was cautioned against 

 attaching too much importance to Spanish official statistics. In my expe- 

 rience, however, complaints of this sort are common to all countries. If 

 statistics do not confirm our own preconceived ideas, they are forthwith 

 condemned as faulty and bad ; if the reverse is the case, they are proportion- 

 ately extolled. I submit, therefore, the data below, subject to the caution 

 I received, which may or may not be well founded. 



The total area under olive trees in Spain was given as 3,383,000 acres in 

 1907, and 3,469,300 acres in 1908. It would appear, however, that the 

 difference of 86,300 acres between the two totals does not so much indicate 



Autumn Work in Andalusian Olive Grove. 



an actual increase in area under olive trees, as a more accurate determination 

 of areas in 1908, than was the case in 1907. 



The total Spanish olive crop is said to have been represented in 1907 by 

 1,579,641 tons. This works out at an average yield per acre of 9Jcwts. of 

 olives, that is to say, not far from my informant's estimate as to what con- 

 stituted a good crop in Andalusia. It follows, therefore, that 1907 must have 

 been a good olive year in Spain. Of the total 1907 crop, 1,507,059 tons were 

 employed in the manufacture of oil ; whilst the balance, 72,582 tons, were 

 presumably used for pickling purposes. Olives used in the manufacture 

 of oil returned a total of 73,762,259galls. of oil, that is to say, an average 

 return of 2-44galls. of oil for every hundredweight of olives. 



Olive returns were by no means as satisfactory in 1908. The total crop 

 is said to have attained to 812,936 tons of olives, or slightly over 4fcwts. 

 to the acre. Of this total, 796,207 tons were absorbed in oil manufacture, 



