590 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



from 18 to 20 inches in length and 3 in circumference, which they 

 knocked into the ground with a large stone while the ground was soft 

 after a rain ; two years after I saw these pegs, most of which had taken 

 root and were in a fair way of becoming good trees. 



The province of Soos produces abundant oil, which is brought to 

 Mogador and shipped to England and France. The people of Bas-el- 

 Wad make two sorts, Tabaluht and Zit-el-aud. The former is made from 

 the olives when green and nearly ripe, with which they frequently grind 

 limes or wild thyme. This oil is very rich and white, and not inferior 

 to the best Florence or Lucca oil. The Zit-el-aud is made from the 

 olives when they are quite ripe and black, and after they had laid on 

 the ground some time. In this state they yield the greatest quantity 

 of oil, but it has a strong taste, which is not disliked by the natives. 

 It is used in Europe in the woolen and soap manufactories. 



Cultivation. In the countries where the olive tree is cultivated they 

 generally plant it on the worst soils on the hillsides ; they are raised 

 from seed, stakes, slips, cuttings, from young shoots, layers, and by 

 grafting or budding. 



Vegetables, such as beans, peas, etc., can be cultivated between the 

 rows of olive trees, provided the stubble, stalks, leaves, etc., while still 

 green, are returned to the soil and worked in around the trees. 



Propagation. Propagation from seed, owing to the oily nature of the 

 pulp attached to the olive seed, is tardy, unless these are placed in lye- 

 water made of potash or ashes for three days, which will remove the 

 greasy substance and allow the water when sown to penetrate into the 

 small kernel inside. The soil should be light, well manured, and worked 

 deep ; the beds laid out in an open, warm situation. The seeds should 

 be sown a foot apart in drills. The best time for sowing is early in the 

 autumn and watered. The plants will come up the following year, and 

 the earth may be stirred between them while the weeds are being re- 

 moved. The second season, when the plants are a year old, they should 

 be budded with known varieties with those producing the largest fruit, 

 if intended for preserving and speculating with the olives, or with va- 

 rieties rich in oleous properties, if chiefly desired for the extraction of 

 oil. A year after budding they may be planted in rows 3 feet apart, 

 and the plants 2 feet from one another, in case their final spot is not 

 ready to receive them, or else they may at once be transplanted in the 

 place where they are to remain. In all this lifting and transplanting 

 much care is necessary lest the roots should suffer any mutilation or 

 injury. Thus followed the young tree will commence to bear olives on 

 the third year, and be in full bearing in its tenth year. 



The propagation by slips or stakes does not require budding nor graft- 

 ing, and they make the best olive orchards; all the orchards and groves 

 in Morocco, and in Andalusia, Spain, where we see some of the finest 

 trees in the world, are from slips or stakes. These should be chosen 

 from the knottiest parts of the branches of the olive ; they must be four 



