212 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



keeps alive the light that cheers the winter's gloom; its 

 wood, close-grained and hard, takes on a beautiful polish 

 and is very highly prized; while its bark and leaves, pos- 

 sessing certain febrifuge principles, are much sought after 

 by the leeches of the country. The tree is slow in reaching 

 maturity, but after the fifteenth or sixteenth year it bears on 

 indefinitely, and seems never to lose its vitality. There are 

 trees in the garden of Gethsemane estimated to be one thou- 

 sand years old, still in full sap and vigor. It is of all fruit 

 trees the hardiest, for scarcely any amount of mutilation, 

 any severity of frost, or even sharp scorching by fire, suf- 

 fices to destroy its life. "So long as there is a fragment 

 remaining, though externally the tree looks as dry as a post, 

 yet does it continue to bear its load of oily berries; and for 

 twenty generations the owner gathers fruit from the faithful 

 old patriarch. This tree also requires but little labor or care 

 of any kind, and, if long neglected, will revive again when 

 the ground is dug or ploughed, and yield as before. Vine- 

 yards forsaken die out almost immediately, and mulberry 

 orchards neglected run rapidly to ruin; but not so the olive. 

 Though they may not have been attended to for half a cen- 

 tury, yet they continue to be a source of income to their 

 owners." 



These peculiarities Virgil observed and carefully noted in 

 his "Georgics" nearly two thousand years ago: 



But, on the other hand, no culture needs 



The olive tree at all; not if the knife 



Forthcurved expects, nor clinging hoe, when once 



It in the field is fixed, and bears the breeze. 



To it the earth, its bosom loosened up 



By furrows of the ploughshare's hook-like tooth, 



