THE OLIVE IN THE SOUTH OP FRANCE. 623 



place and then to set about gathering in the whole crop either by shak- 

 ing or picking off all the rest. Care and attention must be exercised 

 when gathering in the crop for oil-pressing in not picking them before 

 they are perfectly ripe, and also in not breaking off the young branches 

 that will produce fruit the next year. In positions favorable to the 

 ripening of the olives, that is, where the olives on any one tree ripen 

 almost simultaneously, the trouble of gathering in the crop is rendered 

 easier by stretching out coarse sheets or cloths under the trees and 

 simply shaking or pulling the fruit off the branches into them. 



Now in order to obtain olive oil of superior quality there are sev- 

 oral primary conditions to be observed. Care should be taken in 

 selecting only sound olives and picking out all bad ones and foreign 

 substances, such as stones, dirt, leaves, or anything that may have been 

 gathered along with the olives. For superfine oils it is therefore advis- 

 able to press olives that have been gathered by hand only, or at least 

 shaken into cloths. 



Once gathered, the olives should be looked over, selected and separ- 

 ated, and taken to the mills with as little delay as possible. They should 

 not be left in heaps or in baskets for any length of time, as they are 

 liable to ferment, which is detrimental to the obtaining of really fine 

 oil. In some old-fashioned places peasants pretend that this fermenta- 

 tion facilitates the pressing out of the oil and even increases the quan- 

 tity ; but this idea is not to be recommended, as the slight gain, if 

 gain there be, in quantity is more than counterbalanced by the differ- 

 ence in quality.* 



Cleanliness in the mills is a great point. It is essential that all 

 presses, millstones, casings, recipients be perfectly clean, so that no bad 

 taste nor color can possibly be given to the oil during the process of 

 manufacture. 



The simplest and the primitive way of manufacturing oil consists 

 solely in placing the olives in a mill in which one or two millstones are 

 revolved either by hand, by oxen, or by horses, until all the oil is 

 crushed out. But this altogether primitive and imperfect mode can 

 only be seen now in country places at great distances from cities and 

 villages in Algeria, Tunis, and in some parts of France. It has long 

 since been supplemented and superseded by other more perfect and 

 complete processes. 



It is, however, seldom that a farmer or olive grower presses his own 

 olives. In centers and districts of olive cultivation there are generally 

 one or more oil-mills to be found. Proprietors of oil-mills can be 

 divided into two classes, viz, those that are simply oil-crushers, who 

 crush the olives and make the oil for the cultivator who brings his 

 crop to them ; and these are paid in kind, i. e. 7 they are not paid in 



' This custom of allowing the olives to ferment before putting them into the oil 

 presses is still observed in many parts of Spain, and for this reason Spanish olive-oil 

 is generally of an unpleasantly strong taste. 



