66 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



OF OLIVES, AND TREE PLANTING 



1 He states also that in heavy and hot land, the olive' 

 for pickling, the "radius major," ^ the Sallentine, 

 the orchis,' the ' * posea," the Sergian, the Colminian, 

 the "waxy," should be planted — and of all these 

 varieties you should choose that which enjoys the 

 best local reputation. For an olive plantation no land 

 is at all suitable that does not face the west wind and 



2 get plenty of sun. In comparatively cold and poor 

 soil the Licinian olive should be sown. If you put 

 it in heavy or warm land, the hostus * (yield) becomes 

 worthless, and the tree dies from its luxuriant bear- 



3 ing, and is infested by red moss. By hostus is 

 meant the amount of oil returned at each * * making, " 

 by "making" the amount of olives treated at one 

 time — which some place at i6o modii, others 

 bring as low as 120, the number depending on the 

 size and number of receptacles used in making the 



^ Oleam conditaneam, etc. In Italy, then, as now, there 

 were many varieties of olive. In 1788 Giovanni Presta pub- 

 lished a memoir ' ' on the sixty-two samples of different olives 

 presented to Ferdinand IV, King of the Two Sicilies." 



^ Radius. The long shuttle-shaped kind. 



' Orchis. The oval olive. Posea (Pliny, pausea). The bitter 

 kind. 



Presta thought that many of these names were traceable in 

 Italian, as for instance ^awj^a, lta\ia.n Pasola ; Licinia^ Italian 

 Risciolay etc. 



* Hostus no doubt = haustus, draught. 



