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(2) the fact that Government land was being offered at very low prices, con- 

 ditionally on its being planted to olive trees. Unfortunately, as generally 

 happens in such cases, the French landowners, in their natural impatience 

 to possess as early as possible vast areas under profit-bearing trees, attempted 

 to put in larger areas than their means permitted them to attend to properly, 

 with the result that the profit-bearing age of the neglected trees has frequently 

 been put back to their twelfth and even their fifteenth year. Indeed, in these 

 dry districts everything points to the fact that olive trees are profitable only 

 so long as they receive the unremitting care and attention of their owners. 



Whilst in Tunisia I had occasion to pay a hurried visit to Sousse, one of 

 the principal centres of the olive-growing districts of the south. Unfortun- 

 ately, 1910 proved to be an extremely disastrous year to olive-growers through- 

 out the Mediterranean coast ; and the neighborhood of Sousse was no ex- 

 ception to the rule. As I had already occasion to notice in Spain, there was 

 hardly an olive to be seen on these Sahel olive trees ; and the natives, who 

 never think of making provision for lean years, are likely to be reduced to 

 great distress. I visited some of the olive oil factories and was surprised to 

 notice that quite green olives were being crushed. I was told that this practice 

 was being adopted because the crop was so small, and the destitution of the 

 natives so great that it was impossible to protect the trees from thefts. 



The most interesting factory that I was able to visit in this district was 

 that of Les Usines du Sahel. This firm docs nothing but purchase the waste 

 pressed pulp of the olive oil manufacturers of the neighborhood, from which 

 it extracts, by means of carbon bisulphide, the residual oil that cannot be 

 extracted by ordinary pressure and hot water. The process adopted for the 

 purpose may briefly be described as follows : 



The olive pulp, or marc, is first freed from superfluous moisture by exposing 

 it in open troughs heated by steam coils ; when sufficiently dry the pulp is 

 conveyed into huge metal cylindrical tanks, into which carbon bisulphide 

 is pumped. The liquid gradually dissolves the oil, and is subsequently drained 

 off into a retort, in which the carbon bisulphide is distilled off from the oil. 

 It is condensed and may be used again for another mass of pulp. A steam 

 jet is made to play through the tank, so as to remove the last traces of carbon 

 bisulphide and oil. Finally, the pulp is removed from the tanks, dried and 

 used for fuel purposes by the firm, who find it superior to coal. This process 

 extracts from the residual pulp of the olive oil manufacturers from 6 per cent, 

 to 9 per cent, of a crude oil, which is used for the manufacture of soap, or for 

 lubrication purposes. This oil always retains an odor and taste characteristic 

 of the treatment it has undergone, and can never be used for ordinary culinary 

 purposes. 



I left Tunis on the 27th November, and, after spending a few days in the 

 south of France, I paid a hurried visit to Italy. My time there, however, 

 was very limited, and I was unable to collect agricultural data of any value. 



