OLIVES IN CRETE. 727 



trees are surrounded by loose stone walls which are filled in with soil. 

 Goat or sheep manure is sometimes applied. 



Pruning. Is limited to clearing out branches when too close in the 

 spring. 



Picking and curing. Picking commences from September up to No- 

 vember for green olives for pickling ; from November to February for 

 black olives and for oil ; pickled with salt for olives and for oil. The 

 olives are crushed in a revolving stone mill, the pulp is put in goafs- 

 hair bags and saturated with boiling water ; pressure, hand or power, 

 is applied. The liquid runs off, the oil floats, and is collected fit for the 

 market. The oil-cake is reset two or three times and repressed, but the 

 oil is of an inferior quality. A still further quantity of oil can be 

 extracted by chemical appliances, but it is fit only for making soap. 



Maturity. Four to five years. The life of the olive tree is very uncer- 

 tain. There are trees with a girth from 12 to 15 feet and more, said to be 

 over a thousand years old. 



Planting and propagating. Trees are planted from 20 feet in poor to 

 40 apart in rich soil, and propagated most frequently by planting wild 

 trees, by separation of cultivated trees, or by off- shoots. In planting, 

 from February to May, the steins of the trees, wild or cultivated, are cut 

 down to 4 to 5 feet. They are taken with the massive root, the wild trees 

 being grafted before or after removal ; a hole is dug and water poured 

 in, a portion of fine soil is added, and the whole worked to a semi-fluid 

 state. The tree is then plunged in and set, the rest of the loose soil is 

 drawn around the tree, but not trodden down till the following day. 



Insect pests. A worm attacks the fruit when ripening, in Thessaly, 

 where the variety of olive is much larger in size. It does not exist 

 here. The olive decays when the maggot grows and falls off the tree. 



FRANK CALVERT, 



Consular Agent. 



UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, 



Dardanelles, February 11, 1890. 

 156A 22 



