\ 



after the truuk and limbs grow old 

 ami there Is much decayed wood, lliey 

 are cut down am) used tor luel, while 

 the new growth sent forth in a year or 

 two is a bearing tree, having renewed 

 vigi^r. Young nets aie louml in 

 thickets, tbe seed having been de- 

 posited bj birds. In clearing the land 

 I i:e natives preserve them ami gi*!l 

 tin-in usually In place, so that, ;.,- 

 staled before, you seldom find I lie 

 uiivu li'tta in itfcuuiily luid oichaiuti 

 or glove*. Tbe trets ure frtqueully 

 owned by people not owners f tue 

 lai;d on wlncli they {.TOW. For ex- 

 ample, I owu an acre of land with a 

 vineyard in which there are linen or 

 four trees. II for any iv.is m I want to 

 sell them and nut tlie laud and vine- 

 yard, I do so, auti the buyer cau sell 

 iliein again, anil so ou. The owner ot 

 the trtfs h-s a maik to distinguish 

 IbeU). It is frequently the case thai 

 you tiud a lieid witu olive tree* owned 



uy several different ^ersons. Tbe 

 tiem ulive is used comparatively 

 mile, very uiuuU as we use. pickles in 

 UiU couiury. 



Il would seem very strange to 

 American* tl.al uiore attention IN not 

 jia/d to Hie culture of Hie olive in reg- 

 ular groves ami as a special industry, 

 Out to those wlio have lesided in that 

 country and have known liow the i 

 people follow their old customs atij| 

 liabils, and seen thu ninny oOstacles 

 i*t at every step dy agnculiuiiats, it : 

 \* no mystery. A'so the cupidity, in- 

 juslice and opposition df ,i|i i tiling 

 classes nave dm] ti )(f ir effects in every 

 biai.ib of industry it. Tuikey. 



D. VAN LKNNKP. 

 , April 6, 18b7. 



PROFIT IN THE OLIVE. 



PRO! 



A Tree B 



ee Remarkably Well Adapted For 

 The Foothills. 



Homo Old Trees In California Tha 

 Annually Bear ISO Gallons Each. 



Handsome Kcturns From Kither Olive 

 Oil or 1'IckJcrt Oil 



/ ----i -" haviirg reached im: 

 office in regard to the culture of the olive, 

 we republish from the Placer Republican 

 the following extracts from a letter writ- 

 ten by (he editor ol Uic Aw KAL , Dr. L 

 L Agard, of Auburn, who bus a young 

 Wive orchard of twenty or thirty acres 



1 have read Mr. Whitney's articles on 

 Jlive culture, and have been surprised to 

 bnd Inm expressing the opinion that it 

 is wrong. to plant our IX-M land in olives., 

 Uofis it not seem reasonable that if itOIIH 

 to grow the olive at all, one should . 



e land best suited to ihe purpose? The 

 truth ,s that there is a great deal of land 

 tlie foothills that will scarcely support 

 other profitable tree than the oiive 

 'by no means follows, for that rea- 

 on, hat better land should not be de- 

 voted to (he true. The fact that the 

 U ls vr pla . n . ted 11 "> st-ep slopes of the 

 hasto'be* ' Whef-e OOMtly terraci S 



tion of- the value of the'treeVhan" any- 

 thing else. Of course the orange could 



" H*! 8 *' 1 "M U( ;- h situations, because 



those 



Air. Whitney seem* to have overlooks 

 the well-eetaWfehed fact that oliw 

 grownon_hiU-side8 yield a finer qv 



ol' oTrtTfarTtBose grown on valley' la?;<IS~. 

 Good drainage is essential to the 

 and bottom lands are, hence, unsuitedto 

 the tree. 



You remember the letters from jitliSe 

 that appeared in thu San Francisco, 

 Chroniefclast year, relative to the olive?) 

 Writing from France he said that the 

 olive is there more profitable ("in an ordi- 

 nary state of prosperity") than cereals or 

 the vine. And he went abroad with the 

 special purpose of investigating the sub- 

 ject of olive culture. 1 " 



It is possible, as Mr. Whitney says, 

 that the duty on olive oil will sooner or 

 later be take'n off. But the same con- 

 sideration applies to wine and brandy, 

 raisins, figs, nuts, oranges, lemons, 

 prunes and other products of orchard 

 and vineyard. Axid his argument, ap- 

 plied to the olive, of competition with 

 the cheap labor of Europe, applies as 

 well to the vine, orange, almond, prune, 

 etc. Why should tlie olive be singled 

 out ? It can be grow n with much less 

 expense and care than the orange or the 

 grape. I think ( he true idea for Califor- 

 nia is to grow such fruits as can not be 

 produced elsewhere in the United estates 

 (Florida perhaps excepted), fearless of-' 

 European competition. Thousands of' 

 vears of the closest kind of competition. 

 have not destroyed the profits of olive j 

 growing in the countries about the 

 Mediterranean. France has 400,000 

 acres in olives ; Italy J ,500,000 acres ; 

 Spain an enormous area planted to the; 

 tree. But France can not, or does not 

 raise olives enough to supply the foreign! 

 demand for oil, and notoriously uses' 

 cotton-seed and other oils to adulterate 

 the insufficient product of olive oil. 



Mr. Whitney says that " in point of 

 (act we get a great deal of the verv best 

 oil that is made in France or Italy." 

 This is contrary to the opinion of U. S. 

 Consul Walsh, at Florence, who has 

 officially reported to our Government 

 that "no pura oil is exported from Italy." 

 " Twenty-five per cent." he declares, "of 

 the liquid exported is composed of cot- 

 ton-seed oil, and the mixture sometimes 

 . contains fifty per cent:' - Our Consuls at 

 France have made like statements. This 

 is the '' virgin Italian oil" that can be 

 bought in San Francisco at $2 38 u 

 gallon. 



Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, has 

 had to compete against all Europe (save* 

 for Ihe duty of $1 a gallon), and his oil 

 IB quoted $13 50 per dozen quart bot- 

 tles, and is hard to get. Me has told me 

 that 10-year-old trees should give an av-i 

 erage of 150 pounds of berries each, und 

 that 10 pounds of berries make one bot- 

 tle of oil. His trees are all of the Mis- 

 sion variety, and his soil is good some 1 

 ot' it (or much of it), adobe. 



A tenzyear-old olive tree blew down 

 last winter in Sacramento. Its owner 

 (Peter Kunz) told me it bore 150 pounds 

 a year. Isaac Lea, at Florin, has 

 some twelve-year-old olive trees that tie 

 nays bears 125 pounds each. Thert 

 are some very old Mission frees at Sar 

 Diego that have borne 150 gallons of ber 

 rh'8 each annually, for two years in sue- 

 Cession. In Ellwood Cooper's pamphlet 

 wn the olive, he says thut in 1878 he took 

 fiver thirty gallons each off a few of his 

 best trees, his orchard being then only; 

 sjx years old. He adds that" he thought 

 some of his eight-year-old trees would | 

 bear over forty gallons each. Our vir- 

 gin soil gives far better returns than 

 those obtained in Europe with' the most 

 costly fertilization. Thus in Venitia, six- 

 teen-year-old trees are said to yield but 

 jour gallons of berries each, and 

 throughout the Mediterranean region the 

 olive tree does not bear until ten years of 



Leaving oil out of consideration, there 

 jiught always to bo .a good profit in Cali- 

 lornia olives for pickling purposes. 

 Tackled ripe olives rmike up a large part 

 of the food of millions of people in 

 Europe. These are not the pickled green i 

 olives of commerce, but those taken from 

 fi>6 tree after they have turned black. 

 There is no usore wholesome food. 

 America will consume many millions of i 

 gallons of such' pickles annually, when j 



thev can be retailed at a dollar ga'U>. 

 Which would leave a handsome proti 

 ihe "rower. The pickling w '- cost no 

 more than ten cents a gallon. 



At present imported p.-^ clues 

 cost about $1 50 a gallon wholesale n 

 Son Francisco. The California pickled 

 olive (Mission variety) sells read, ; 

 from SO cents to $1 a gallon, to whole- 



I oeiieye with Mr. Flamont, ol iNap_a. 

 .'who hr.s sixty acre? in olives) that rue 

 cultivation of the olive is goin_g to at 

 much more interest in California tfwn 

 viticulture, because either by pickling or 

 for making oil, it will pay three or four 

 times as much." He was brought up 11 

 France among olive trees and vines, and 

 hia opinion is certainly valuable. 

 n extensive vineyard, in addition tc 

 ,olive orchard. 



Olive OiJ^rospeci 



in doubt about the outlook of the in- 

 dustry, and the possible adjustment of 

 demand and supply, will find much com- 

 i fort in some remarks which the Los Ange- 

 les Tribune reports as coming from Ellwood 

 Cooper, of Santa Barbara, the well-known ol- 

 ive-grower. He said olive oil-making (if you 

 know how to do it) is the easiest possible way 

 of making money. The demand U increasing 

 10 times as fast as the supply. Last year he 

 sold his oil for 12.60 per case; this year he has 

 advanced the price to $24. He says this ad- 

 vance puts the oil beyond the reach of most 

 people, it is true; the demand will be for inva- 

 lids and medicinal purposes; but he can sell all' 

 he can make at that rate. He is increasing his 

 olive plantation as fast as possible. 



This confidence of Mr. Cooper is certainly re- 

 freshing when mails and telegraphs are bring- 

 ing such doleful items as the following: 



The former great industry at Florence of 

 making their flasks for oliv oil is said to be 

 wholly destroyed by the English flooding the 

 market with cottonseed -oil imitations, which 

 is now almost universally sold under the name 

 of olive oil. The matter, it is said, is going to 

 be raised in the House of Commons, under the 

 Adulteration Act. 



It ia quite possible that the last sentence 

 gives the key to the future of olive oil. If 

 legislative enactment in all countries can be 

 had against selling cottonseed oil as olive oil, 

 the genuine article will certainly be vastly 

 helped. Cottonseed oil is a good oil, but not to 

 be sold under a false name. Let it be sold for 

 what it is. Keep it out of olive oil, keep it out 

 of butter, and it is all right. It is quite possi- 

 ble that relief may come to the olive oil as it 

 has come to genuine butter, by laws against 

 selling the false as the true. California has 

 asked Congress to do this, and will continue to 

 aak it, although with the great cottonseed in- 

 terest to fight in Congress, the right will be a 

 difficult one to gain. 



THE OLIVE. 



/ , 



" 



, 



Further Information Regard/off tMo Val 



u:>hle and J'riifltable Fi-iiil. 



_. 



Ine culture of the olive is a, branch oj 

 the .fruit-growing industry which is yet iff 

 its infancy on this coast but we believe! 

 that, in a lew vears, it will become one oij 

 the most important as well as profitable 

 fields of horticultural enterprise with us, 

 as it is at present with many countries 

 >n the south of Europe, whose chief- 

 revenue is derived from the export of 



Olive oil and pickled olives. 

 The olive tree is distinguished for its 



great longevity and vitality. A tree in 



the garden of the Vatican at Rrmie is 

 id to be a thousand years old. Dunn- 



the_ Greek revolution the Turks eta 



