THE OLIVE TREE. 



ii 



jars, merely covered by the lid, for more than 

 two years, in. Melbourne, without appearing to 

 change for the worse. 



When engaged in the duties of the Royal 

 Commission for Foreign Industries and For- 

 ests in Victoria during 1870-1, 1 endeavored to 

 obtain as much information as I could from 

 botanists, and from gentlemen experienced in 

 the growth of the tree in Australia, for such 

 practical knowledge is often preferable in new 

 countries to aught that can be obtained from 

 books. Accordingly, I obtained the following 

 from my illustrious friend, the Government Bot- 

 anist : 



NOTES FROM BARON VON MUELLER. 



"For grafting seedling olives there are at the 

 Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, four renowned va- 

 rieties, obtained from the Honorable Samuel 

 Davenport, of Adelaide, who, for a series of 

 years, has given much attention to this branch 

 of cultural industry, studied this with other ru- 

 ral questions during a stay in South Europe, 

 and wrote last year an instructive little publica- 

 tion on the cultivation of the olive. These va- 

 rieties a^e : 



"(i.) v'erdale Available for a good table 

 oil, as well as for green conserve. This and 

 the next following are early and abundant bear- 

 ers. 



"(2.) Blanquet Adapted for dry ground. 

 The oil is of a particularly sweet, delicate taste, 

 and more pale than other kinds, but does not 

 keep so long. This and the Verdale produce 

 the fruit on low-growing branches, so as to be 

 accessible for hand-picking. 



"(3.) Bouquettier For superior oil. 



"(4.) Redounaou Eligible for colder re- 

 gions ; produces table oil, and is also esteemed 

 for conserves. 



"Some other kinds are locally available, 

 among them the Olivier de Grasse, the latter 

 yielding an excellent table oil and oil for per- 

 fumery, but the plant is high of growth, and 

 the gathering of the fruit more expensive. It 

 is of a weeping habit. Baron Von Mueller has 

 also entered into arrangements with corre- 

 spondents in various parts of South Europe to 

 obtain other superior varieties which as yet are 

 not introduced into Australia. The American 

 system of establishing at regular distances lines 

 of shelter plantations of trees on farm land, 

 might be adopted for planting olives. In such 

 cases quick-growing timber trees may be chosen 

 in the first instance along with the olives to pro- 

 vide shelter earlier than otherwise possible. 



"Whenever olive fruits cannot well be locally 

 utilized, they should not be allowed to go to 



waste, but be sown with a view of obtaining a 

 copious stock of seedlings, to be grafted, a 

 proviso which is easily accomplished a very 

 few years later. Seedlings under the cover of 

 decaying foliage spring up spontaneously in 

 masses from dropped fruits. 



"The planting of olives cannot be sufficiently 

 impressed on proprietors of arable soil, the cli- 

 mate of most parts of Victoria having proved 

 singularly well adapted for richly productive 

 olive culture, as in a multitude of places near 

 Melbourne and elsewhere may be seen. While 

 a gold-field becomes exhausted, an olive plan- 

 tation increases in value for a long series of 

 years, and becomes a lasting source of revenue 

 to its possessor. The yield is annually at once 

 salable, while it is for many small farmers 

 more readily remunerative than grapes, if the 

 latter are to be converted into wine. The olive, 

 moreover, is a hardy plant, and hardly subject 

 to any diseases which might render the yield 

 jjrecarious. The processes of gathering the fruit 

 and preserving the oil are of the simplest kind, 

 and do, therefore, not necessitate the applica- 

 tion of skilled labor. 



"Mr. Davenport's management of truncheons 

 is to bury them horizontally in the ground 

 about four inches below the surface, in a good 

 vegetable mold, neither subject to dryness nor 

 too much moisture. After two years the young 

 trees, then three to five feet high, are trans- 

 planted to permanent positions, the month of 

 May being the time chosen for the purpose. 

 Olive oil produced in Adelaide this year was 

 sold at twelve shillings the gallon to grocery es- 

 tablishments, the fruit being mostly from seed- 

 ling trees. Careful hand-picking costs in Ade- 

 laide four pence per bucket. The work gives 

 good employment to children, who manage to 

 pick six buckets a day, and, if experienced, may 

 gather more. Any simple structure will an- 

 swer the purpose of pressing, coir matting bags 

 being used for the crushed olives for successive 

 piles under the press. The first oil obtained by 

 gentle pressure is the best. It is not at all un- 

 likely that the olive plant would thrive in many 

 parts of the salt-bush country on the Murray 

 River, now not utilized for any cultural pur- 

 poses." 



Mr. Thomas Hardy, of Bankside, near Ade- 

 laide, South Australia, writes : 



" My knowledge of the olive is very limited ; 

 the oldest trees I have were planted in 1858, 

 and have borne fruit five years. They were 

 planted as seedlings of one year's growth, and 

 have never been grafted. I have never tried 

 growing them from truncheons, but I know that 

 Mr. Samuel Davenport has succeeded in grow- 



