CALIFORNIA OLIVE CULTURE SOILS. 21 



the most tender care. If planted on land which as been well 

 prepared for it well loosened, properly aerated, and thor- 

 oughly pulverized the young rootlets find no difficulty in the 

 way of their extension, and the tree soon recovers and makes 

 a vigorous growth. If, on the other hand, the land has 

 been merely skimmed over with the plow and the subsoil left 

 untouched, the young roots are checked in their growth, and 

 the trees receive a setback from which they seldom recover. 

 The first year of its life in the orchard determines the whole 

 future of the tree, and whether it shall be a success or a failure 

 depends largely upon the preparation of the land for its 

 reception. 



Cultivation. The application of suitable fertilizers at proper 

 times is an important factor in successful olive culture., 

 The fertilizers should be selected with a view to the require- 

 ments of the tree, as indicated by the analyses of fruit, wood, 

 and leaf, given elsewhere. While the olive rejoices in the 

 natural looseness of sandy, gravelly, and stony soils, and 

 in freedom from standing water, it is not of the class of trees 

 that do best in sterile soils. Nutriment is necessary to its 

 productiveness, and if this does not exist naturally in the soil, 

 or has been exhausted, it must be supplied. In growing olives, 

 as with all other crops, the continuous cropping of the soil 

 will gradually exhaust it of the constituent elements of the 

 plant, and these must be supplied from some source. Anything 

 that can be used to enrich the soil is valuable. The orchard 

 should be kept free from weeds, which sap the soil of its 

 moisture, and the surface of the ground should be kept well 

 pulverized. 



*"I need not say to any horticulturist that cultivation can- 

 not be too thorough; good tilth is an exhibition of 'faith and 

 work,' which comes very near being an absolute guarantee of 

 success. But even this will not in all places succeed without 

 another artificial help, viz, water, for it is the exception and 

 not the rule where olive trees will do their best without irriga- 

 tion; and wherever nearly perfect conditions do not naturally 

 exist, and irrigation is resorted to to establish such conditions, 

 it has become nearly or quite an established fact that for each 



*Hon. Frank A. Kimball, of National City. 



