632 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



sloping into hills toward the sea and protecting the country from frost, are 

 the unsurpassed conditions, with the temperature, for the nurture of 

 the olive and the maturity of its fruit. Nowhere is the earth blessed 

 with a continuance of more polarized light. The temperature during 

 the winter months, in which the olive ripens, is like that of spring in 

 middle France. The winter is deemed exceedingly rigorous when the 

 thermometer falls below 32 Fahr. Thirty years of accurate observation 

 have proved that of the fifty-six days of rain during the year forty-two 

 were in autumn. October and November are the months in which the 

 psychrometer gives the highest average. In May the temperature aver- 

 ages 64, in June 70, and the strong heats of July and August 78 Fahr. 



During six months, viz : from the close of May to the end of Novem- 

 ber, more than one hundred days are enjoyed without clouds. The win- 

 ter temperature on the whole, in the shade, averages 52. The years 

 when it falls below 32 are rare but ruinous. Such an exceptional cli- 

 mate generally allows the fruit in winter to reach its full maturity. 

 The tree grows everywhere here, except in marl or clay or other moist 

 conditions, but best ill a dry soil, on slopes toward the sun, sufficiently 

 sheltered. On steep declivities, where quantity and quality of oil are 

 only aimed at, no crop of any kind allowed beneath its foliage, but else- 

 where and in plains a mixed cultivation is profitably employed. In 

 prosperous seasons the olive is more remunerative than corn or the vine. 



Picking. The gathering of the crop begins in November and continues 

 until May. The harvest is divided into three periods of two months 

 each. From the first is produced an oil high-colored and called " fine," 

 '/he second produces a straw-colored oil called " superfine," the last a 

 pale-colored oil called " extra superfine." The product of the first 

 period is most dense and has a strong flavor of the fruit, and can be 

 Congest preserved. But the best quality of the oil is that from the last 

 gatherings of April and May, when the fruit has become fully ripened. 

 This, although less flavored than the others mentioned, has more sweet- 

 ness and limpidity, and is in great demand in the home markets and not 

 always easily procured for export in its finest grades. 



Oil manufacture. -To express the oil from ripe fruit freshly gathered 

 and unmixed with that which is immature or otherwise of bad condi- 

 tion is an essential rule, and to this method the reputation of the oil of 

 Nice is mainly due. The olive is gathered from small trees bV hand, 

 and from large ones it is knocked off with poles. The first manner is 

 preferable, as the fruit thus escapes being bruised and as any lengthy 

 contact with the soil affects its flavor. But this can not so readily 

 be practiced either on large trees or slopes or fields of large extent. 

 Women and boys are employed for the purpose, for which as wages 

 they receive 77 cents for every 20 liters. 



The mills for grinding the olives are located on the little water- 

 courses of the region, and a stone wheeling around on its axle triturates 

 the fruit and reduces it to a paste. The latter is then placed in bags 

 of esparto and squeezed under a press in the mill. The olive oil then 



