custom. AIK, ,u. why anyb'xly ever 

 pickled the olive green I do not know. 

 Certainly no one who ever ate a purple 

 ripe olive would ever eat a green one. 

 Maybe the olive was put up green in 

 Spain and Italy for better transporta- 

 tion. Be that as it may, I desire to call 

 attention to the little purple California 

 olive. This oily, luscious and soft 

 little pickle is a new delight for the epi- 

 ure. And no one who ever tastes a 

 ripe olive properly prepared will ever 

 touch one of the tough, old-fashioned 

 green ones from over the sea. This 

 olive here is prepared for the table in 

 the simplest way possible. They are 

 gathered, thrown into a tub of water, 

 where ,the few bad ones float off, and 

 then they are simply packed in brine. 

 That is all. Joaquin Miller in durum 

 ~OHve Oil in California. , 



7 



in 

 111 



CO 



THR nameof El wood Cooper is held in 

 high esteem by all ton vireum, for to his 

 intelligent perseverance they owe one of 

 the rarest of table delicacies. Pure olive 

 oil had almost ceased to exist as a inar-i 

 ketable article when he established his 

 noted ranch in Santa Barbara county, 

 but at the present day it can always be j 

 had if one can afford to pay for it. To 

 this gentleman the State of California' 

 'owes a debt of gratitude, in that he has 

 started and brought to assured success j 

 ' an industry that promises to be one of 

 the^ most valuable on the coast. So 

 superior is the California olive oil manu- 

 factured by El wood Cooper that it com- 

 mands a price far in excess of the best 

 foreign importation, while its sale is 

 limited only by the amount of its pro- 

 duction. The choicest olive oils of, 

 France and Italy, after they have passed! 

 from the manufacturer through the bandsj 

 of numerous middlemen, and after they 

 ( . have paid the cost of transportation and 

 customs duties, sell for from 30 to 40 cents 

 per bottle less than the oil that is pro- 

 duced at our doors because the latter is; 

 the acknowledged standard of purity and 

 palatableness. This statement is no 

 " advertising puff," for it is impossible, 

 to puff an article for which the demand j 

 is infinitely greater than the supply, and 

 the object of this writing is simply to call 

 the attention of California farmers to a 

 valuable and too much neglected pro- 

 duct of the soil Last evening a reporter 

 .of the Call met Mr. Cooper in the Lick 1 

 ^ House, and asked him for an account of' 

 . his experience as an olive grower and aj 

 '- anufacturer of olive oil. A lengthy 

 ^conversation ensued, and the gist of it 

 is here given for the benefit of those who 

 may profit by-it. Avoiding the form of 

 dialogue, the substance of Mr. Cooper's 

 remarks was as follows, portions of 

 them here and there being scraps that he 

 read from his brochure on Olive Culture : 



THE FIRST PKACTICAT, OLIVE-OHOWIXO. 



j 1 8 '' 8 ) came to California in 1868," 

 said Mr. Cooper, " and was at that time 

 merely travelling for pleasure. Much 

 that 1 saw here delighted me, and I wasl 

 especially charmed with the climate of 

 -anta Barbara. There the idea struck 

 me that I would like to live there if I 

 could only strike upon some interesting 

 an. 1 remunerative occupation. At each 

 ol the missions visited f found a few 

 itty olive trees, and the possibility of 

 oming an olive-grower struck me fa- 





iioOiIiiL'1,1- I),,, 



its culture, nor of the manufacture of 

 oil, but I did know that it was a valua- 

 ble product of Southern Europe, and 

 felt that with equally good soil and 

 climate an American ought to do as well 

 as an European. At that time the ex-j 

 periments made here in olive growing 

 had been at the Catholic missions for the 

 sole purpose of supplying the absolutely 

 pure oil necessary for the Church service, 

 In this connection I may remark that all 

 the oil now used in the Catholic churches;? 

 out here is grown and manufactured at 

 the Mission San Jose. On returning 

 East, the new project survived the jour- 

 ney, and I at, once got together all the 

 literature I could that bore on the subject. 

 [After long and careful reading, I reached 

 the decision, which subsequent experi- 

 ence has proved to be true, that no part 

 of the world was better suited to olive- ' 

 growing than a large belt in Southern j 

 California. The olive belt of the world 

 is very limited, as the tree will stand 

 neither excessive heat nor cold, nor any 

 amount of moisture where there is a 

 high degree of temperature. In other 

 words, it is only to be found in those 

 parts of the -almost semi-tropics where 

 severe frosts are unknown, and where 

 the atmosphere is comparatively dry, 

 although tempered by a, certain amount 

 of moisture from the sea, It may be 

 said that the olive belt of California ex- 

 tends from the lower part of Shasta 

 county, on the North, to the Mexican 

 line on the South, and runs East to the 

 base of the foothills. The hot season in 

 the foothills of the Sierras is too long and ' 

 dry. It is generally best to have your 

 olive grove somewhat removed from the 

 sea, but the tree will thrive directly on 

 the coast where it is not exposed to the 

 severe north-west trade winds. I may 

 say here that a rich olive belt is also 

 found all along the South-east coast of 

 j Australia, as good a one as anywhere in ; 

 Ijjje world, probably. Sun Francisco 



TBK XEEI>9 jrfi 1 TIIJ5 OLIVE. 

 It is an ancient error that, the olive 

 does not Hourish in situations away from 

 the sea. This error obtains to some ex- 

 tent in California. It should be dissi- 

 pated, as it nas a tendency to check the 

 extension of fljhat ought to become a 

 great industry throughout the interior 

 of the State. An examination of the 

 reports made byjtJnited States Consuls, 

 upon frait culture in foreign countries, 

 affords abundant refutation of the mis- 

 chievous notion that we have here to 

 deal with. Writing from Milan, Con- 

 sul Grain remarks tha~, the olive is found 

 in Italy "at great distances inland,' 1 

 and that "it has been erroneously 

 claimed that the olivewould only grow 

 near the sea." Coisul Welsh, at 

 Florence, says the olie "thrives well 

 on the sea-coast or <& the hillside.'' 

 Consul Oppenheim, at Jadiz, thus testi- 

 fies : - "/,, 



The ancient dictum. IJd down both by 

 Latin and -Arab auth<, that olive cul- 

 ture could only be j'osecuted within 

 thirty leaguiM c.f the ba, has been dip- ' 

 proved by inoituir 



Consul Marston, at ?al*ga, says that 

 olive trees do not gro- to any extent 

 near the sea-coast in tKt province "ou 

 account of the sea wirs, which arc in- 

 jurious.'' From Consintinople Consul 

 Heap furnishes this 'formation : 



Although it is not ts most suitable sit- 

 uation for them, oli\ orchards 

 times planted near tulle sea . -on , and in 

 mich places inn, . ly spfn ex- 



tending to witinn a f/y.-irds , f Hi 

 In su> . "(ten suffer from 



exposure to cold vvds, and are not so 

 Jiealthy. 



Consul Jtobeso at lii-hut, wr j 

 that the olive ixiards of Syria ex- 

 tend from the coato places _'. 

 above the level of he sea. His 



planter 



ineiit is followed by that of 

 Meshaka, of Damascus, who, to the 

 rniestion of "how near to the Coast are. 

 the olive orchards ?" answers: "Forty- 

 five to 75 miles." From Haifa, also in 

 .Syria, Consul Schumacher writes that 

 the olive trees are planted "within half 

 a mile of the sea, and from that dis- 

 tance throughout the interior country." 

 ^Consul Abela, at Sidon, says the olive 

 "thrives both near the coast and in the 

 mountains, where it is found at an ele- 

 vation of 3,000 feet," and that "the best 

 soil is the red, porous soil of the hills." 

 One of the most efficient of American 

 Consuls is Colonel F. A. Mathews, a 

 Califoruian, stationed at Tangier. He 

 has furnished the State Department 

 with a most interesting and valuable 

 report on the olive, which is largely cul- 

 tivated in Morocco. He finds that the 

 olive tree "prospers and yields abun- 

 dantly on the top and sides of moun- 

 tains, amongst rocks matters not the 

 shallowness of the soil- in gravelly and 

 stony ground where neither wheat, 

 barley nor oats will grow." ' 



The most essential conditions for 

 the successful cultivation of the olive j 

 are those of temperature. There must ! 

 be a sufficient mean annual temperature ' 

 to ripen the fruit, and the mercury 

 must at no time fall below 16* or \S' Fr. 

 These conditions of temperature in, 

 the Mediterranean are not often found 

 remote from the sea, which tends to 

 equalize the climate. But the influence 

 of fogs and moist sea air has been found 

 to be uufavorable. The dry air of the ! 

 interior, wherever the requisite condi- ; 

 tions of temperature are found, is much' 

 better than sea air. The successful cul- 

 tivation of the tree at Marysville, 

 Chico, Colusa, Smartsville, Oroville, 

 Auburn, Sacramento, Florin, Winters, 

 and other interior points in this State, 

 is a practical confirmation of these de- 

 ductions. It has been found that the 

 climate of the southern coast counties 

 promotes the multiplication of the scale 

 insects (the olive's worst enemy), which 

 do not thrive in the drier air of the 

 ulterior. The very best locations for 

 olive culture in this State are to be 

 lound m the foothills of Northern Cali- 

 fornia. 



Jm SAN FERNANDO OLIVES. 



f-y ' I ,- /.OS Anyfles Il-'ralci, 



To a lover of the ancient, historic and most use- 

 ful tree, the olive, the symbol that the earth was 

 tillable by the children of men, and has shown by 

 its persistence of life that it meant to stay and 

 demonstrate the truth of the proposition contained 

 in the rainbow, by laughing at the centuries as they 

 pass, a eight of the sturdy olive trees of Ban .Fer- 

 nando that have faced the storms of a hundred 

 years and are now more laden with fruit than was 

 ever before witnessed in California, is peculiarly 

 exhilarating and instructive. 



All aronnd the ancient enclosure built by the 

 Franciscan Fathers a century ago stand the olive 

 trees, which they planted with reverent hands be- 

 fore the Constitution of the United States was 

 adopted. Like that Constitution they have borne 

 \ fruit ouly for the good of mankind, and to-day 

 are gracefully bending beneath a load of nutritions 

 fruit for the benefit of the people. 



The old trees of the San Fernando Mission, ow- 

 ing to a legal contest of title about the land on 

 which they stood, were neglected for about ten 

 years, and left nnprnned, while the land wan left 

 nntilled. Still the grand old trees maintained 

 their living, hut with limited f raiting. 



Abont three years ago, when the title was set- 

 tled, Mr. P. Cbznuavo took ctargaof the grounds 

 and plowed them thoroughly. He then pruuod 

 the trees judiciously and awaited results. These 

 have been most gratifying and Rnrprising. With- 

 out delay these oentennarians commenced sending 

 oat hundreds of thousands of new branches, and 

 loading both young Hod old with precione fruit, 

 while all aronnd th hsavv crop of barley thrives, 

 ind the trees, though they hare received no irriga- 

 tion, each year produce a glorious crop of hand- 

 eome olives, that will mate a rich return for tri- 

 fline labor. Ou the .bending bfanchae of these 



