KIPENING AND PICKLING OF CALIFORNIA OLIVES. 



13 



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RESULTS OF EXAMINATION OF FRESH OLIVES. 



The data (Table 2) on the samples collected in December, 1914, at 

 which time practically all olives should be ripe, are interesting. 

 These samples, which were carefully selected and segregated on the 

 color basis, ranged from green to purple. The first four samples in 

 the table were picked from the same or adjacent trees in the same 

 grove, as were all the other pairs of samples bearing the same sample 

 number. Size is recorded 

 as number of olives per 

 pound and also in average 

 short diameter in six- 

 teenths of an inch, as both 

 these methods of desigTia- 

 tion are used commercially. 

 It may be mentioned that 

 diameter and weight are 

 not exactly related, ow- 

 ing principally to differ- 

 ences in shape. Four col- 

 ors are distinguished — 

 green, yellow, red, and 

 purple. By green is meant 

 " grass " green. The term 

 " yellow," although com- 

 monly used by the grower, 

 is a misnomer, as it is a 

 yellowish green, which ap- 

 pears just before the first 

 tinges of red. A study of 

 the various sets of samples 

 in Table 2 coming from 

 the same trees or grove 

 shows that the olives with 

 the more advanced colors 

 usually are larger and 

 heavier than the others, that they have a lower percentage of pits, 

 and, as a rule, are higher in solids in the fruit flesh and contain more 

 oil in the flesh. The oil in the flesh on the dry basis does not appear 

 to be related closely to the color, being frequently nearly the same for 

 the purple and green olives and sometimes higher in the green sample. 

 The amounts of protein and ash in the flesh are roughly equal, fairly 

 uniform, and do not appear to bear any relation to color. The com- 

 position of the pits also bears no relation to the colors. In general, 

 then, among olives from the same tree or grove, the ones with deeper 



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Fig. 1. — Changes in percentage composition of 

 Mission olives occurring during ripening in 

 1915. 



