THE OLIVE TREE. 



filled with water, from which it is taken off and 

 set apart in earthenware jars. To separate any 

 vegetable fibers and other impurities, it is fre- 

 quently decanted. When no more flows, the 

 paste is broken up, treated with hot water, and 

 pressed again. This is often done a third time. 

 The best oil for domestic purposes is made 

 from the pulp only. A machine has been made 

 for pulping without smashing the stones, which 

 contain a little tannic acid. All the inferior 

 qualities find their uses in machinery, in soap- 

 making, lamps, etc. 



Two things occur to me to mention in this 

 connection, viz: 



(i.) If the crushed matter be allowed to stand 

 for any considerable time say three or four 

 hours fermentation will have set in if the oil 

 cellar be warm, and the loss of oil will be quite 

 considerable. 



(2.) Wherever the oil cellar is situated and 

 the various operations of purifying are con- 

 ducted, direct sunlight must be excluded if the 

 oil is to remain good. It must never for one 

 minute see sunlight, or it is spoiled. 



A list of seven favorite kinds, from a note in 

 Michaux : 



(i.) Olivier Pleureur Fourteenth variety of 

 the New Duhamel; a fine tree, somewhat re- 

 sembling a weeping willow; good both for ta- 

 ble and oil ; Mr. Thomas Hardy, of Bankside, 

 South Australia, has it. 



(2.) Olivier a fruit arronde (Olea spherica) 

 It requires moisture, good soil, and plenty of 

 manure. Good for oil. 



(3.) Olivier de Lucque ( Olea minor lucensis) 

 Hardy, and yields fruit for preserving. 



(4 and 5.) Aglandeon Are good for oil, and 

 prefer dry and elevated grounds. 



(6.) Olivier Amygdalin Much prized about 

 Montpelier for its fine and abundant oil. 



(7.) Picholinf Olea oblonga) Yields the most 

 celebrated pickled olives. This variety is not 

 delicate in its choice of soil and climate. 



The following extracts from Busby's Journal 

 are both interesting and useful : 



"About a mile from the town we struck off 

 into a plantation of olives. Few of the trees, 

 however, contained any considerable quantity, 

 and some were altogether without fruit. Such 

 olives we pulled were universally rotten. I was 

 afterward told by Mr. Gordon that all olives are 

 rotten this year, and that this is invariably the 

 case every second year. A little farther we saw 

 a new plantation on the opposite side of the 

 road, and luckily found a peasant. To our 

 questions respecting the olives, he informed us 



that the plants bear a little fruit even the first 

 year ; but, in the second and third years, they 

 bear a considerable crop in proportion to their 

 size. Some of what we saw had been eighteen 

 months, some only six months. The former 

 appeared healthy young trees, covered with a 

 considerable quantity of foliage. The latter 

 had only a few slender shoots, and some of 

 them indeed stood in their original nakedness. 

 The olive plants were nothing else than large 

 limbs of old trees from eight to ten feet in 

 length and from two to three inches in diame- 

 ter. They are sunk about four or five feet in 

 the ground, and the part of the plant above 

 ground is covered, during the first summer, with 

 a cone of earth or clay to the hight of from two 

 to three feet. 



"The olive having been mentioned, we were 

 shown two trees which supported a wheel for 

 drawing water from the well. Two posts hav- 

 ing been required for this purpose when they 

 were clearing the ground of some olive trees 

 three years ago, they took two of the trunks of 

 these, which were respectively ten or twelve 

 inches in diameter ; they nevertheless took 

 root, and are now covered with strong branches, 

 affording a proof of the great facility with which 

 the olive takes root. The vinador said that an 

 olive would produce a crop three years after its 

 plantation, but not a full crop till its fifth year, 

 and would reach its greatest perfection in its 

 tenth year. He said a plant ought to be the 

 limb of a tree of the thickness of a man's arm. 

 Being asked how long it would take before a 

 slip such as we plant in New South Wales 

 would bear a crop, he appeared to consider the 

 proposal as ridiculous, and said he thought 

 twenty years. He did not consider the oil of 

 young olives inferior to that of the old; the 

 only difference in their value arises from their 

 quantity. The trees are planted with consider- 

 able regularity, at the distance of thirty-six or 

 forty feet. An average crop is from one and a 

 quarter to one and a half arrobas that is from 

 five to six English gallons each tree. 



"When rain falls in August, the olives always 

 suffer from it. All the ground we saw was a 

 light sandy loam. It is plowed once a year. 

 They plow an aranzada of the olive ground in 

 a day, but not more than half that quantity of 

 the meadow or corn land below. There are 

 five kinds of olives on the estate ; one of them, 

 the 'La Reyna,' is of a very large size, and is 

 pickled for eating. The tree of this variety 

 produces but little fruit, and the fruit when 

 pressed yields very little oil, but is highly prized 

 for eating, being as large as a good sized plum. 



"After having been brought home, the olives 

 lie in a heap on an average about fifteen days 



