608 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



Irrigation. Olive trees when planted are irrigated once a fortnight 

 for the first year, excepting February. In subsequent years they are 

 irrigated twice per annum, once during the first forty days of the winter 

 season, and the second time during the same period of the summer 

 season. 



Cultivation. Lands of olive trees are cultivated twice a year, once in 

 December and another time in March. 



Pruning. Olive trees are only pruned after the third year of their 

 planting by taking away what may be growing around their trunk. 



Picking. Olive fruits are picked green in October and ripe in De- 

 cember and January. The fruits are picked green for pickling and ripe 

 for pickling and making oil. 



Curing. The next step, after picking the green olives, is to prepare 

 them for pickling, and the ripe olives to extract their oil and to prepare 

 them for pickling also. The process of pickling the ripe olives is to 

 press them in a basket several days until the bitterness disappears, then 

 they are washed with water, dried a little, salted, and put in oil for use. 



The green olive (the Masaabee) is commonly used and prepared in 

 the following manner: One-half pound of alkali and one-quarter pound 

 of lime, both dissolved in water and put with 5J pounds of green olives 

 in a vessel for a period of about a week, with a little shaking every 

 day until the bitterness disappears, when they are washed and put in 

 salt water for use; or green olives are put in salt water several months 

 until the bitterness disappears, then bruised gently and placed in oil 

 for use. 



The process of extracting oil is as follows : Ripe olives are placed in 

 a warm place for about four days, then crushed by a heavy roller and 

 put in baskets under pressure by side of a vat until the juice flows into 

 it. There the oil is gathered from the surface of the water, ready for 

 market. 



Maturity. Olive trees commence fruiting at three years of age after 

 planting and are in full bearing at about twenty. 



Yield. The average yield of a mature olive tree is about 430 pounds 

 of olives, according to the fertility of the soil ; but olive trees bear only 

 every other year. 



Planting and propagating. Olive trees are planted at 17 to 20 feet 

 apart, and propagated from young olive plants springing up abound a 

 mature olive tree; they are disjointed with a piece from the old tree to 

 serve as a root. If the soil where they are to be transplanted is not 

 stony a few stones are placed under them ; most of their trunks are 

 wrapped in straw and some clay is put upon the top of these plants for 

 their protection from the sun and birds during the first year's growth. 



Insect pests. When hail falls upon the olive fruits a small worm 

 infests them, but there is no treatment therefor. 



NASIF MESHAKA, 



UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, Consular Agent. 



Damascus, January 10, 1890. 



