60 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



for bottling. Care in handling olive oil does not cease when it 

 is transferred from the filter to the bottle. It is exceedingly 

 important that light be excluded and that it be stored where 

 an even and reasonably cool temperature is secured. When 

 offered for sale only 'sample' bottles should be shown, and 

 these are not to be sold. A purchaser should decline to take 

 a bottle of oil which has been placed where the sun's rays 

 or even light has been allowed to reach it. When transferred 

 to the kitchen the bottle should never be left uncorked and 

 should be kept in a cool place in the dark." 



*"The berries are dried before crushing, as it is necessary to 

 evaporate a portion of the water of vegetation which they con- 

 tain. If, however, they are left out. on the trees until shriveled, 

 which is proof that the necessary evaporation has already taken 

 place, no drying is needed after picking. This late picking is 

 not best. If dried by the sun it requires about fourteen days. 

 This plan cannot be depended upon, excepting in years when 

 the fruit ripens early, and we have continuous sunlight, with 

 moderately warm weather. By artificial heat ranging from 

 110 to 130, the drying can be done in less than forty-eight 

 hours. The crushing and pressing should follow without 

 delay; that is, the fruit taken from the drier in the morning 

 should be crushed and pressed the same day. Long intervals 

 or delays in the process from picking the fruit to expressing 

 the oil tend to rancidity. To make perfect oil requires a 

 perfect system in the whole management. The capacity of the 

 press, the crusher, the drier, and the number of pickers should 

 correspond or be about equal. All fruit picked during the day 

 should be in at night, cleaned the following morning, and go 

 into the drier immediately after the previous day's drying is 

 taken out. The heat or temperature of the drier ought to be 

 so graded as to complete the work in forty-eight hours, and it 

 is better that it should be under 130 rather than above. 

 Economy will necessitate in the business a system in the differ- 

 ent branches of the process admitting of no delays from the 

 beginning to the end. My drier has a capacity of five hundred 

 square feet of surface, and will contain at one time over two 

 thousand pounds of olives, equal to five pickers of four hundred 

 pounds each per day, and as much as the crusher and press I 



*Hon. Ellwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara. 



