642 



FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



operated by the sun's rays, is sufficient to kill it totally at the base. 

 With a lower temperature, not followed by sunny days, the plant does 

 not suffer as much, as it can stand to a cold of 10 centigrades below zero. 

 It is not so much the cold weather that injures the olive growth as it 

 is the frequent change of cold weather to warm, and the often melting 

 of ice. 



One of the greatest enemies of the plant is frosty weather, espe- 

 cially when the snow fallen on the branches dissolves by the sun's 

 rays and congeals again during the coming night; at 12 below zero 

 it riot only kills all the leaves, but even the trunk and its roots to the 

 ground. 



A cold of equal intensity is more fatal during the spring season 

 than it is in winter, for the reason that the plants are then in a state 

 of vegetation, and consequently the new sprouts are ruined and de- 

 stroyed. 



A cold in a vaporous atmosphere hurts more than in a dry one, and it 

 is for that reason that with the same degree of cold the olive plants on 

 plain lands, because in a vaporous atmosphere, become more damaged 

 than those located on hills. The altitude which the olive tree can 

 attain varies according to the several regions in which it is cultivated. 

 In central north Italy, for instance, it ordinarily trespasses 500 meters 

 above sea-level, while in Sicily it goes over 700 meters. But Professor 

 Alvi assures me that he has seen olive trees in this island at 800 meters. 

 It is proper, however, to note that if at the extreme limit of altitude the 

 olive tree can vegetate, it is impossible there to bear fruit. Hence, 

 planting in such localities does not pay. I may here give the agrarian 

 climatic temperature in Sicily, which is divided in three different zones, 

 viz, the marine or warm climate, the medium or hilly temperate, and 

 the mountainous cold one. The height of the first is considered to be 

 from to 600 meters above sea-level ; the second from 600 to 1,100, and 

 the third 1,100 to 1,800. 



The following table shows the several principal products cultivated 

 and grown in same : 



[Agrarian climatic zone in Sicily. 1 



