OLEACE^.. 



179 



tiaus. But we have uo means of determining the exact date of its introduction 

 into Europe. It propagates itself freely, and is growing without cultivation 

 iu all the countries around the Mediterranean. The olive tree is of slow 

 growth, but where its natural development is allowed for ages, the trunk often 

 attains a considerable diameter. l)e Caudolle records one 23 feet in girth 

 whose age was supposed to be seven centuries. Some Italian olives are 

 credited with an anti([uity reaching back to the days of repuldican Rome; 

 but the age of such ancient trees is always doubtful during growth, and their 

 identity with old descriptions is still more difficult to establish. 



Cultivation. — Its mode of culture, or rather the method of making a planta- 

 tion, is singular and interesting. The province of Susa, in Morocco, produces 

 great abundance of olive oil, wiiich has the 

 reputation of being of such excelh^nt quality 

 as to rival the celebrated Florence oils. In 

 Jackson's account of the empire of Morocco 

 there is a description of an extensive olive 

 plantation. The order and arrangement of 

 the trees struck him as being very curious, 

 and on inquiring the cause of the arrange- 

 ment he was told by an official high in au- 

 thority that during the Saddia dynasty, a king, 

 on the march with his army to the Soudan, 

 encamped on the spot, and that the pegs to 

 which his horses were picketed were cut from 

 an adjacent olive grove, and each one became 

 a tree. This explanation he regarded as fab- 

 ulous, but goes on to relate that he had occa- 

 sion to plant some fruit-trees in a garden. 

 The person employed to make the plantation 

 procured some olive-branches, cut them up 

 into pieces a foot long, sharpened one end 

 with a knife, and proceeded to drive them 

 into the ground with a stone. Supposing the 

 fellow was imposing upon him, he ordered 

 him away ; but on being assured that it was 

 the usual method, he allowed him to proceed, 

 and each peg grew into a thrifty olive-tree. 



Engrafting the better varieties upon wild stocks greatly increa.'^es the i)ro- 

 duction of fruit. 



Preparation of olive oil. — The fruit is crushed in a mill, the pulp then placed 

 in woollen bags and subjected to pressure and the api)lication of hot water. 

 The oil is skimmed off the water and placed in tul)s, barrels, bottles, crocks 

 (a sort of earthen jar or pot), and other vessels. In the remote districts, where 

 it is made in small quantities, it is taken to market in bottles made of goat- 

 skins. On that part of the Italian peninsula skirting flie mouth of the 

 Adriatic, the entire country is an olive orchard. In the oil .•<ea.'?on. hundreds 

 of mules and donkeys crowd the highways going into fJallipoli, the seaport, 

 laden with oil, where mav l)e seen at the same time fifteen to twenty ships 

 taking in their cargoes of oil and olives. When the oil is first brought in 

 from the mills it is emptied into a large vat, or cistern, at which time it is 

 dark and turbid. After remaining for some months in this ma.ss. ir settles. 

 becomes clarified, and takes on a beautiful amber color, when it is drawn off 



Olea Europ^a (Olive). 



