THE OLIVE IN ITALY. ()3 ( J 



ITALY. 



INFORMATION FOR AMERICAN OLIVE-GROWERS. 

 REPORT BY CONSUL LAMANTIA, OF CATANIA. 



Variety. The common olive tree in Europe has oblong leaves, and is 

 the kind which was first imported, and from the wild state repro- 

 duced in varieties, and grafted, offers so many varieties too difficult to 

 mention. In fact, the Indians knew but one kind ; the Egyptians only 

 3, and the Hebrews and Greeks 5. The Romans, as to Virgilius's state- 

 ment, knew but 3 varieties; Cato says 10; Columella stated 12; Ma- 

 crobio reported 14, and Pliny declared 15 varieties. In other times the 

 Botanic Tournefort classified them to 17 varieties. 



By an interesting report, however, published in 1871, by the Ministro 

 d'Agricultura, Industria, e Commercio, it seems that there were registered 

 300 varieties actually cultivated in the several regions of Italy, viz : 

 Lombardy, 23 varieties; Yenetia, 21; Liguria, 24; Emilia, 10; Marches,. 

 63; Tuscany, 30; Lazio, 27 ; Adriatic coast, 07, and Sicily, 21 varieties. 

 The olive tree in Sicily blossoms from the month of April to June, and 

 experience has proved that when it happens Jn April yields a full crop, 

 while blossoming in May or June gives a scanty one. 



The flowers on the bunches develop very slowly, but as soon as they 

 fade the fruit sets on and is formed in a few days. Ten or fifteen flow- 

 ers compose the bunch, but only a few of them set on, and many of 

 them fall down. 



Bunches with three or four fruits stand well, and the fruits so formed 

 come to perfect maturity from the month of October up to the end of 

 March (see Fig. 3, with bud, blossom, fruit, and stone open in two). 

 The olive tree, when it is located in favorable conditions and cultivated 

 properly, grows to an extraordinary size, very high, and lives very 

 long. In fact, Pliny says, that in his time at Luiterno, a city near Rome, 

 were seen trees which had been planted two hundred and fifty years 

 before by Scipio Africauus. Gasparin writes to have seen at Eogliano, 

 in the Island of Corsica, olive trees from 17 to 18 meters high. 



Extraordinarily large are also several Saracene olive trees in Sicily, 

 some of which Professor Alvi says yield as much as 10 hectoliters of 

 fruit. One of them, near Girgenti, which he himself measured, has a cir- 

 cumference 4 of 8.20 meters (25 feet) at 6 feet from the ground. Their 

 age, he further states, is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 

 years, while other authors agree it to be from five hundred to six hun- 

 dred years. 



In some counties in the province of Cosenza (Calabria) there are 



