FRUITS VARIETIES AND CULTURE. 545 



bearing in five or six years, but are not remunerative 

 until ten or twelve years old. The trees produce fifteen 

 to twenty pounds of oil per year, and their longevity is 

 greater than that of any other fruit tree. The dry lime- 

 stone soils of Florida would probably become exceedingly 

 valuable if planted with the Olive. 



It should be tried wherever the Orange will survive the 

 winter. In planting, the trees are set from thirty to forty 

 feet apart. The European varieties are many, but we 

 enumerate only a few. 



In 1S01 General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary 

 fame, planted four hundred olive trees at Dungeness, on 

 Cumberland Island, Georgia, and in 1895 they were forty 

 feet high and two and one-half feet in diameter. It is said 

 that one thousand barrels of olives were gathered from 

 these trees in one season. Unfortunately, the unusually 

 cold weather of 1S95 that damaged so seriously the 

 orange trees of Florida, also killed these olive trees at 

 Dungeness, so that they were cut down. Strong shoots 

 are now putting forth from the stumps, and the proprietor 

 is trying to start the trees in the direction of another 

 magnificent growth. 



Mr. P. J. Berckmans, iu speaking of the olive, makes 

 the following comments: " Olives have been cultivated on 

 the coast of Georgia and South Carolina for many years, 

 and an excellent quality of oil has been produced. A 

 peculiarity of the olive is that it flourishes and bears 

 abundant crops on rocky and barren soils, where no other 

 fruit trees are successful. Olive trees begin to bear fruit 

 at from eight to ten years of age, but should not be 

 planted farther north than this section (Augusta, Ga.), 

 where they are sometimes injured by excessive cold." 



The following varieties are recommended : 



Nevadillo Blanco. — This is of Spanish origin, and 

 is the variety from which most of the oil" shipped from 



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