bb STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



* "I have six olive orchards in different locations. The one 

 on the lowest land is in what is known as black adobe. When 

 it gets wet no animal can travel over it. It is probably sixty 

 feet above the level of the sea. Another is in black adobe 

 that is probably one hundred and sixty feet above the level of 

 the sea; another is in sandy loam, composed of soil washed 

 down from hills and mountains. I have another orchard that 

 is in what we call red lands, something similar to the red 

 lands about Redlands, four hundred feet above the level of the 

 .sea and on a side hill. I have also, alongside of it, at the 

 same height, an orchard in solid black adobe, within a quarter 

 of a mile of the same place. I have another about four hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the sea, in sandy loam. Of course 

 I make oil from these olives as they ripen. But I have the 

 trees in a great many different locations under different 

 circumstances, and thus I have ripe fruit in some orchards 

 perhaps a month before it is ripe in others, so that I can 

 begin early and continue the oil-making until late. The 

 oil I made two years ago I had in seven different tanks or 

 vessels. That made from one orchard, first; and from a dif- 

 ferent orchard, second; third, fourth, and so on, down to the 

 end of March, when I finished. Excepting the first tank, I 

 could see no difference in the oils. No man could detect a 

 difference in taste, color, or weight. Regarding the fatty 

 matter that Mr. Goodrich speaks about in the Mission olive, 

 on some lands, there is so much fatty matter that the oil is 

 too thick. As a matter of absolute knowledge as to the diffi- 

 culty in extracting the oil from the different orchards, I have 

 not been able to discover any; but my olives are always very 

 perfectly dried. I have four or five different drying-houses. 

 The olives are put in these drying-houses in very thin layers, 

 and the heat is kept at about 120 F.; they are not taken out 

 until they are thoroughly ready for the crushing,, and that is a 

 great factor in making oil. The probability is that one half of . 

 the weight passes oft* in the nioisture, and after I get these 

 olives in that condition they will be spongy and rather greasy; 

 that is, if one puts his hand on them he can tell in the dark 

 whether they are ready to crush or not, by simply feeling 

 them. If they are allowed to go beyond this condition and 



*Hon. Ellwood Cooper, Report of Third Olive-Growers' Convention 

 (1893), p. 26. 



