THE OLIVE TREE. 



value of pickled olives imported into San Fran- 

 cisco for the year was $13,892. 



Great Britain imports annually almost 5,000,- 

 ooo gallons. Nearly all of this comes direct- 

 ly or indirectly from ports on the Mediterra- 

 nean, and was produced on land, the rivers and 

 streams of which flow into that sea. 



PRUNING OLIVES. 



This process is adequately shown by the sub- 

 joined figures. Fig. I shows the young tree to 

 be cut off at C. Six branches, three on each 

 side, are left, and the 

 lower twigs shorten- 

 ed. Each branch is 

 developed during the 

 year, as shown in Fig. 

 2, which is then cut 

 at C again, and the 

 shoots, B and D, are 

 shortened. The up- 

 per shoot is started 

 out by this process, 

 and it appears the fol- 

 lowing year as A in 

 Fig. 3, and it is again 

 cut at C. This causes 

 the two upper shoots 

 to develop, and at the 

 end of the year they 

 appear as shown at 

 B B in Fig. 4. This 

 is their position at the 

 fourth year's pruning, 

 and each of them is 

 cut at C, and A is 

 shortened, and D is 

 allowed to develop. 

 FlG - x - By this time the tree 



has a spherical or vase form, and exposes much 

 surface to the sun, which is desirable. 



THE HOME OF THE OLIVE. 



While the olive is found wild in a certain 

 climatic zone of the Himalaya Mountains, and 

 is supposed to have been transported in some 

 former age from there to Europe, yet practi- 

 cally all of the olive oil of commerce comes 

 from Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Algeria, Mo- 

 rocco, and other countries which have coasts on 

 the Mediterranean. 



Bocardo says that Italy has 1,235,000 acres 

 planted to the olive, producing annually 30,560,- 

 ooo gallons of oil. Simmons gives the exports 

 in 1854, of that part of Italy and Sicily then 

 composing the Kingdom of Naples, at 36,333 

 tons, valued at $11,263,230. Nieman gives the 



FIG. 2. 



export from Spain for 1873 as valued at $10,- 

 425,600. In 1874, in consequence of the Carl- 

 ist war, it fell off to $3,716,000. 



France, according to Prudent, produces but 

 a small proportion of the olive oil which it con- 

 sumes, yet annually exports to the value of $2,- 

 000,000. 



George P. Marsh, United States Minister to 

 Italy, says "that in the olive, walnut, chestnut, 

 cork-oak, orange, lemon, fig, and other trees, 

 which, by their fruit and other products yield 

 an annual revenue, nature has provided South- 

 ern Europe with a partial compensation for the 

 loss of the native forest," and adds: "Some 

 idea of the importance of the olive orchards 

 may be formed from the fact that Sicily alone, 

 an island scarcely exceeding 10,000 square 

 miles in area, of which one -third at least is 

 absolutely barren, has exported to the single 

 port of Marseilles more than 2,000,000 pounds 

 weight of olive oil per year for the last twenty 

 years." 



EXPRESSING THE OIL. 



In the south of France, where the most care 

 is given in the preparation of oil for market, the 



FIG. 3. 



