696 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



plaster of dung and clay. The trees produced in this manner commence 

 bearing at the age of five or six years. Should these young plants be 

 established in a locality differing much in soil or exposure from their 

 original home they are grafted from trees already adapted to the situa- 

 tion. 



When a new plantation is to be made the ditches for each row are 

 opened some time before, with a width of 4 or 5 feet, and, if possible, 3 

 feet deep, or, if in separate holes, they should be 6 feet square and as 

 deep as the soil will permit, and the first 9 inches of earth kept 

 apart to allow that from below to profit more fully by the action of the 

 air. When replaced it should be liberally mixed with manure, or, if 

 none at hand, with bits of leather, of hoof or horn, woolen rags, shrubs, 

 grass, or dead leaves, taking care to mix such materials well with the 

 earth, but not in contact with the roots. 



The distance between plants varies much with situation, but the 

 medium in ordinary cases is to allow 10 or 15 yards between rows and 

 from 6 to 10 in the row. A circular ridge of earth, a yard or so across, 

 should be raised around the plant that the rain water may be kept ami 

 forced to filter among the roots. Some cultivators envelop the stems 

 for fear of exposure, but this is not necessary at the season of planting, 

 and has the effect of preventing the absorption of light, air, and solar 

 heat, most necessary to the plant at this period. 



INTERCROP CULTURE IN OLIVE PLANTATIONS. 



In most cases the intervening spaces are cultivated with the ordinary 

 crops of the country, maize, wheat, luzern, or a rotation of those crops ; 

 .but, while the constant movement of the soil between the trees is ad- 

 vantageous, the exhaustion of its nutritive elements by such planta- 

 tions is certainly a prejudice, especially after the trees have attained a, 

 certain size and vigor. The best authorities urge their discontinuance 

 after ten or twelve years, without, however, neglecting to spade the 

 ground in April or May, and, if possible, in August of each year. 

 Those who attach primary importance to their olive crop oftener sow 

 vetches, lupines, beans, and such vegetables only around their trees, 

 and turn them in with the spade or plow, a practice which, by common 

 consent, gives precisely the manure best suited to the requirements of 

 the plant. 



MANURE, AND PROTECTION FROM COLD. 



About once in three years the supply of more stimulating manure, 

 should be renewed, and for this purpose, as before mentioned, besides 

 the ordinary stable product, the refuse of the tannery, remains of hoofs, 

 and other substances containing azotates, phosphates, and carbonates 

 of potassa are excellent material. 



It is usual, on the approach of winter, after the crop, to raise a con- 

 siderable heap of earth around the foot of each tree to protect the roots 



