BOOK XV. II. 4-III. 7 



V^irgil ° said that there are three kinds of oHve, the 

 orchites,'' the shuttle-oUve '^ and the posia ; '^ he also 

 stated that the oHve-tree does not require raking or 

 pruning or any attention. There is no doubt that 

 even in the case of oHves the soil and the cHmate are 

 of very great importance ; but nevertheless they 

 are also pruned at the same time as the vine, and 

 they Hke the ground to be raked between them as 

 well. OHve-picking foUows the vintage, and making 

 oHve-oil requires even more science than making 

 wine, as the same oHve-tree produces a variety of oils. 

 The first oil of aH is obtained from the raw oHve and 

 when it has not yet begun to ripen — this has the best 

 flavour ; moreover its first issue from the press is the 

 richest, and so on by diminishing stages, whether the 

 oHves are crushed in wicker sieves or by enclosing 

 the spray in narrow-meshed strainers, a method 

 recently invented. The riper the berry is, the 

 greasier and less agreeable in flavour is the juice. 

 The best age for picking oHves, as between quantity 

 and flavour, is when the berry is beginning to turn 

 black, at the stage when they are caHed druppae with 

 us and drypetides by the Greeks. For the rest, it 

 makes a difference at that stage whether the maturing 

 of the berry takesplaceinthepresses or ontheboughs, 

 and whether the tree has been watered or the berry 

 has only been moistened by its own juice and has 

 drunk nothing else but the dews of heaven. 



III. It is not the same with oHve-oil as with wine oihe-oii: 

 — age gives it an unpleasant flavour, and at the end p^l^a! 

 of a year it is already old. Herein, if one chooses 

 to understand it, Nature shows her forethought, 

 inasmuch as there is no necessity to use up wine, 

 which is produced for the purpose of intoxication 



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