THE OLIVE IN SYRIA. 611 



Cultivation. Plowing must be done early in the spring, not less thiui 

 four times ; live times is still better. Plowing is still done by means 

 of the old primitive implement. 



Pruning. Olive trees are not pruned; the dead branches only should 

 be removed before the tree is in blossom in the spring. 



Picking. When fully ripe and turning black; the green in Septem- 

 ber and October and the black after this date. Olives can be preserved 

 when green, i. e., before they get black. 



Curing. After picking the olives, heaping together should be avoided 

 in order to keep them cool and prevent fermentation. 



Oil. Olives are first crushed under a cylindric millstone, then 

 placed in bags made of goats' skin and pressed with a hydraulic press. 

 In this way oil is extracted from olives. Sweet oil is obtained from 

 olives that are fully ripe. Bitter oil is produced either from dried 

 olives or from olives that have been left for some time heaped up 

 together, or by the residue of olives that had been pressed. This 

 residue, after being placed in large boilers over the fire until it is 

 heated, is sprinkled with water and pressed again with hydraulic 

 presses. 



Pickling. The process of pickling olives is as follows: Olives are 

 gathered before they turn black ; i. e., when they are yet green, and 

 after removing all the dry and decayed or spoiled olives they are placed 

 in water salted to a degree which would cause an egg to float thereon. 

 The spoiled olives, and even the good ones, are sometimes bruised and 

 pickled in salted water ; in this way olives get sweet quicker than when 

 not bruised. The process of pickling black olives is to place them in a 

 shallow receptacle for seven days, during which they are every day 

 sprinkled with salt in proportion of 10 ounces to 6 pounds and stirred 

 up so as to be well soaked with salt, after which they can be either 

 pickled by being placed in vases containing the salt- water that remains 

 in the receptacle or in one containing some sweet oil. After olives are 

 pickled, as above stated, it is always well to sprinkle some salt and 

 spread olive leaves on the surface. Pickling the Damascus green olives 

 is effected by placing them in water in which alkali (in the proportion 

 of 2 ounces to the 6 pounds) and lime (in the proportion of 1 ounce to 

 the 6 pounds) have been dissolved for twenty-four hours. After which 

 a bath of sweet water is to be applied and renewed for three or four 

 days until the taste of the alkali and lime has disappeared; they are 

 then pickled and placed in vases filled with salt water. Black Damas- 

 cus olives are pickled as follows : Stir them for a week in salt, then 

 spread them in the sun for one day to dry, then put them in oil. 



Maturity. Olive trees begin fruiting when they are fifteen years old ; 

 in a good soil, from the eighth year. 



Yield. The average annual production of an olive tree is valued at 

 from -J5 to .'50 piasters (89 cents to $1.07). In the year of fertility (olive 

 trees produce every other year only), it is estimated to be double that 

 amount. 



