I] OLIVE PRODUCTS 107 



for it tastes of iron. The skins of the grapes are 

 thrown into casks and water is added to them. It 

 is then called lora^ an abbreviation for lota acina 

 (watered grape-skins), and in winter is given in- 

 stead of wine to the workmen. 



CHAPTER LV 



OLIVE PRODUCTS 



i I We now come to the olive plantation. Such olives 

 as you can reach with the hand from the ground or 

 from ladders ^ are better pulled than shaken from the 

 tree ; for those which have been struck lose flesh and 

 give less oil. Those which are picked by hand are 

 better if gathered with the bare fingers, not with 

 pincers, for the hardness of the latter not only 

 - nips the berry but barks the branches as well, and 

 leaves them unprotected against the frost. Those 

 branches that cannot be reached by the hand should 

 l)e beaten with a reed rather than a pole, for a heavy 

 blow demands a doctor. The man who beats must 

 not strike the olive directly, for often an olive so 

 ;>truck carries a green shoot away with it from the 

 branch, in which case the fruit of the next year is 

 lost ; and this is one of the chief reasons why they 



iy that every other year olive plantations bear no 

 iit or a diminished crop. 

 ' Scalis, The Geoponica (ix, 17) recommend rpiyuva dva- 



