.hetree,l>..uerres,s, ft-vll"n<i 



pulp,!'"* must be cleaned of this 

 either by letting them rot in a pil or by 

 n , i. them into an alkaline solution. 

 P \ pie wav to hasten germina.u.n is to. 

 break the pits, taking, care not to 1, 

 the germ. An instrument similar to the; 

 nut-cracker has been 'invented in I'nvnce 

 which irf said to work very well, 

 the kernels 'are deprived of then shell, 

 ev are steeped in a compost or mixture, 



"cow dungand Bandy soil and are 

 sown thickly in the month oi April. If 



iuuht too much work to take 

 , .el out of.the pit,. they must be 

 o-iked in an alkaline solution. 

 8 The seedling olive grove at the experi- 

 mental grounds were treated with art 



1 "kaline solution of one-fourth pound of 

 concentrated lye to the gallon of water 

 Most of them sprouted the first yeai, 

 although there were a few stragglers pro- 

 duced the next year. Planting the 

 , aked kernels gives the quickest result. 



i Without using .this artificial means the 

 seeds will remain dormant at least fc 



tW The e failure in growing plants from the 

 , olives produced in this State iBclearlv 

 'due to the fact that the common Mission 

 olive has, at least in most parts of the 

 State, but a small percentage of well- 

 Hpvdoned trerms. This has been ob- 

 nrved bv Mr. J. R. AVolfskill, of Win- 

 ters who told me that he had broken 

 hundreds of pits without finding a sound 

 verm. Our experience at Berkeley has 

 been similar, although the last year s 

 crop showed a larger percentage than 

 was the case in previous years. Mr. E. 

 LCooper in his treatise speaks ot the 

 failure to get any Mission olives to grow 

 from seed, and I find upon inquiry that 

 he has also observed the non-developi 

 ment of the germ. It is my belief that 

 other varieties, and perhaps even the 

 'common Mission, in other localities will 

 be much more fertile. The following 

 facts seem to substantiate this : 



To obtain, more insight in the matter, 

 . Mr. 0. H. Dwinelle obtained for me from 1 

 Mr. A. S. White, of Riverside, some 

 dried olives, which, upon examination] 

 proved to have nearly 50 per cent, of ap j 

 parently good kernels. The result ot 

 sowing was however very small, spmd 

 ftve or six per cent, only germinating; 

 nevertheless, enough to prove that thera 

 is a difference in the fertility of the seeds 

 of the Mission olive in different parts of, 

 the State ; although, perhaps, the cause! 

 may lie in difference of variety. There . 

 exists in Southern California at least one 

 j, other variety besides the common Mis-i 

 sion a variety of more straggling habit, 

 and with larger fruit. It is generally, 

 mixed with the ordinary kind, and not 

 often recognized as being distinct. 



The percentage raised from the Euro- 

 pean seeds of six different kinds was 



about 15 to 20 per cent. To savt nsid- 



erable work in selecting olives for seed, 

 they should be put in pure water; all 

 those that sink at once will be found to 

 have the seed wholly or partly developed.) 

 In Europe the wild olive is much used! 

 for grafting stock ; this species is nearly 

 always fertile, and it would pay any one 

 who desires, to grow olives' on a 'large 

 scale to get a quantity of its seeds. 



TIME OK HEARING. 



It is argued by many people that the 

 olive requires an excessively long time to 

 come into bearing. In favorable locali- 

 ties this is by no means the case. In the 

 southern part of the State, large olive 

 cuttings commence to bear in the fourth 

 year. Mr. Cooper, of Santa Barbara, 

 reports two gallons of berries on some of 

 his best trees at that ago, and as much 

 as 30 gallons from the best at six years. 

 Mr. Kimbali, of National City,' San 

 Diego, reports similar results. Our own 

 experience at Berkeley, when the sum- 

 mer temperature is very low, must lie 

 termed very encouraging. Two small 

 trees, but a few feet high, brought from 



the Missi if San .lose, were planted in 



IS7:;, by Mrs. Jeanne Carr. For two 



years after .Mis. (air's departure, they 

 wers neglected, but answered very 

 quickly to kind treatment; and after six 

 years from planting produced some fruit, 

 and have produced full crops every two 

 years, steadily increasing. The yield at 

 eight years thus was about 50 pounds ; 

 at 10 years over 100 pounds per tree, 

 while this year each tree averaged 225 

 f. pounds. In the ofl' years the yield has 

 been about one-quarter as much. Com- 

 pared with warmer localities, where the 

 Mission olive ripens earlier, the yield 

 perhaps looks small, but with varieties 

 better adapted to our cooler climate the 

 result would doubtless be different. As 

 olives are worth four cents a pound the 

 profit would be very good. Judging 

 from what we know about the adapta-- 

 bility of the olive, it would seem that an 

 olive grove would be one of the safest in* 

 vestments all over the State, provided no 

 over-production should take place. 



ENEMIES OF THE OUVE. 



There are, however, a number of 

 "drawbacks, chief of which are the insect 

 pests. So far, with the exception of 

 twig-borers, the only insect enemy the 

 . olive-grower has had to contend with is 

 the scale, coupled, however, invariably 

 with the black fungus, which it is now 

 pretty well understood feeds upon the 

 viscid excretions of the scale. So severe 

 has the attack of this scale been in the 

 moister parts of the State . that only the 

 most persevering men, led by Mr. 

 Cooper, of Santa Barbara, have suc- 

 ceeded in its suppression. 



I do not believe as some do, that the 

 . sole, remedy for this evil is to leave the 

 (oast and seek localities where owing to 

 the intensely dry air, the olive scale 

 seems to be an impossibility. Other 

 factors governing the condition of the 

 tree, and not often considered now,' 

 will show themselves. It, must be 

 remembered that with the influence 

 of the sea we also lose the more 

 uniform climate which always has been 

 considered of prime importance to the 

 ; olive. But by starting with thoroughly 

 clean trees and keeping them so I think 

 there need be no fear. For the purpose 

 of keeping the trees clean from the first, 

 whaleoil soap dissolved in a decoction of 

 tobacco water, viz., one pound of soap 

 and one-half pound of tobacco per gallon, 

 is to be recommended. It is here that 

 the small green cuttings previously de- 

 scribed are much to be preferred to old 

 cuttings, which nearly always are more 

 or less infested with scales. But the 

 I scale is by no means the only formidable 

 enemy the olive-grower of the Old World 

 has to contend with. 



The principal ones to he feared therei 

 are the l)e<-un n/m-, a dipterous insect af- 

 fecting the pulp 'of the fruit; the olive 

 moth, Finea vleela, which like the apple 

 moth feeds on the seed of the olive;' 

 finally, the Psylla, a hemipferous insect. 

 Of these three, the first, Dccna olece, is by 

 far the most destructive. According t : o 

 I'ouchet it destroys in France yearly 

 :>, 000,000 francs worth of olives; and the 

 .other coasts of the Mediterranean do not 

 escape its ravages, li seems to breed 

 all the year round. The fly lays its eggs, 

 one to several, in the pulp of the olive, 

 and the larvie when hatched live on the! 

 pulp next to the pit. It remains here asl 

 chrysalis, and finally leaves the olive a 

 flying insect. Whether it has left the 

 fruit before the harvest, or is crushed 

 with the oil, it is almost equally objec- 

 tionable. This insect is In vtouch? of the 

 (French and marhn, ilel olirn of tin- 

 Italians. 



The olive moth works almost like the 

 apple or codlin moth. The eggs are laid 

 while the pit is still young and tender, 

 the larva living on the kernel of the olive 

 until it leaves it a complete moth, caus- 

 ing the fiuit to drop prematurely. This 

 insect does not, however, confine itself to 

 the fruit alone, but works also on the 

 leaves and bark, causingluberosities and 

 crippling of the leaves. * 



The I'ysllaoli'u'is a hemipterous insect, 

 which like the dreaded white cottony 

 scale, covers itself with a white viscid 

 covering, fastening itself on young foliage 

 and fruit. 



It iJHinnolrnced that an i 

 t ion of olive trees is to be established in 

 Solano County. The growing of olives and 

 the manufacture of oil have already i 

 beyond the experimental st;ige. In San Diego 

 and Santa Barbara counties, in particular, 

 olives have been grown for several years at 

 a very handsome profit, while the California 

 olive nil is so noted for its excellent quality 

 and freedom from adulteration that retail- 

 ers in New York buy tip all they can of our 

 present product, and one or two have re- 

 cently made large contracts for se.ve, ' 

 years to come. This makes it more difficult 

 for San Francisco grocers to buy enough for 

 their own trade, hence prices both here and 

 in New York are said to be higher than for 

 the best brands of foreign- oil. A leading 

 San Francisco dealer, when asked the rea- 

 son for this demand and the high prices, re- 

 plied, with emphasis: "Because it is known 

 to he pure. Of course it is free from adul- 

 teration." 



"We have been sending onr wines and 

 fruits to the East for a long time. They 

 have gradually made their way against 

 foreign rivals, slowly at first, but rapidly of 

 late, until there is no longer any fear that we 

 shall have a surplus which we cannot dis- 

 pose, of. It is so with what olive oil nn>. 

 pickled olives we shii' East. Authorities in 

 such matters declare that both if sent from 

 here in large quantities would immediately 

 overcome the most formidable competition 

 of Europe. If our oil is as fine, relatively, 

 as its admirers claim and the demand for it 

 evidences, and our olives also, then there 

 seems to be no reason why our fruit-grow- 

 ers should not pay more attention to this 

 fruit. At any rate it will do our fruit- 

 growers no harm and cost them nothing to 

 look into the matter a little more closely. 

 It might result very profitably for them. 



. 



E. Cooper' of Sahita Barbara has an 

 olive grove of 6000 trees which yields 

 him 50,000 bottles of the finest oil ah- 

 .nually, worth $1 a bottle, orJIOOO per 



.( ,-/. i / / { Jf -Li, l-a^ 



OLIVE CULTURE. 



An Interesting Essay from a Practical 



been invested with a pecuHar interest. 

 Originating in the distant East, where 



[tradition locates that earthly paradise, 

 the Garden of Eden, it has remained 



jjihere to sustain, satisfy and gladden suc- 

 cessive generations, and also been carried 



"by man as something essential to his 

 comfort and pleasure, through all his 

 wanderings and journeys westward, even 



v *p our own fair land upon the shores of 

 the western sea. 

 The olive and its product, oil, figure 



fmost prominently in the sacred writings. 



phe tree is frequently referred to as 



A.\ KMBLKM OF BEAUTY, 



Whether clothed in its profusion of white 

 flowers In springtime, or in its evergreen 

 foliage in winter. Again it is presented 

 as an emblem of profusion and irladness 

 when its branches are bending with fruit 

 ready for the harvest. By Divine direc- 

 tion olive-wood was used in constructing 

 certain parts of the temple at. Jerusalem, 

 while its oil was made a. constituent part 

 of the offerings of the Mosaic ritual, and 

 was also used in consecrating Hebrew 

 kings and priests to their high offices In 

 the literature of the Eastern empire 

 especially Mythology, we also find the 

 olive frequently mentioned. Sacred to 

 Minerva, it was to the polished Greek of 

 that early day an emblem of peace and 

 chastity. In reading Plutarch's lives of 

 thereat men whose names have been 

 preserved, we find that when the people 

 wished to bestow the highest honor upon 

 their favorite, the investiture was made 

 by publicly placing upon the brow of the 

 candidate a crown wrought of the spravs 

 the fflive. And in the celebrated Olym- 

 pic games, amidst the acclamation of'the 

 multitudes ot spectators, this was l,e- 



