78 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



before picking the fruit from the trees; never less than twenty- 

 four hours, and many times from two to eight days, changing 

 the lye once or twice, depending upon the length of time required 

 to neutralize the bitterness. The time required to extract the 

 lye from the fruit also varies, depending upon the variety of 

 the fruit and other conditions. When all the lye is extracted 

 from the olives I remove the fruit from the vats (using wire 

 shovels) and put it in barrels containing brine made of Liver- 

 pool salt and artesian water, using fourteen ounces of salt to 

 each gallon of water. The barrels, after being headed up, are 

 put aside for ten days, at the end of which time, if the olives 

 are to go to market, the barrels are rolled out, the brine drawn 

 off, and the barrels refilled with brine that has been boiled, 

 skimmed, and cooled ; if the olives are not to go to market the 

 brine is drawn off and the barrels refilled with unboiled brine 

 and again set aside until ordered to market, at which time the 

 brine is again drawn off and the barrels refilled with boiled 

 brine as above. 



GEADING. 



The grading of olives for pickling is very important. Largo 

 berries require a much longer time for the lye to penetrate to 

 the pit in neutralizing the bitter principle than do smaller 

 or medium-sized ones; therefore, if berries of all sizes were 

 placed together in the lye solution, the medium-sized and 

 small ones would have to remain therein until the larger ones 

 became processed, and thus would be greatly damaged by 

 remaining in the lye a greater length of time than was neces- 

 sary. After trying all the graders recommended some of 

 which have done excellent work in grading other fruits, such 

 as prunes, etc., but which were either too slow or unfit for 

 grading olives I perfected a grader which, for rapid work, 

 accuracy in grading, etc., is not excelled. This grader consists of 

 three trays, made of one-quarter inch material, twenty by forty- 

 six inches, fitting one into another, with slats of three-quarter 

 inch half-round molding extending the length of the tray. 

 The slats are lined with cloth, which is wrapped around the 

 slat before it is nailed down, to prevent bruising the fruit. The 



