134 The Olive Tret.. 



We find in the book of Leviticus, that oil formed a principal 

 part of the meat offerings, which the Israehtes presented to the 

 Lord, ' If thou bring a meat offering taken in the oven, it shall 

 be unleavened cakes offinejlour, mingled with oil, or unleavened 

 wafers, anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be a meat offering, 

 baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. ' 



Phny informs us, that in the 500th year of the city, when Ap- 

 pius Claudius and L. Junius were consuls together, a pound of 

 oil was sold for twelve asses; but that in the year 680, ten pounds 

 of oil sold for one ass, and that in twenty-two years after that 

 time, Italy was able to furnish the provinces with oil; and it was 

 much used at their baths, having, as they supposed, the property 

 of warming the body and defending it against the cold. 



The best olive oil, at present, is obtained from Provence. It 

 is esteemed good for the breast and lungs; it tempers the sharp 

 choleric humors in the bowels, and is useful against all corrosive 

 mineral poisons, as arsenic, lead, <^c. 



Thus have we rapidly sketched an outUne of the history and 

 uses of the far-famed olive. Among the gifts of Minerva which 

 adorn our rising republic, policy, arts and arms, may we hope to 

 see her favorite tree enrich our soil. Some light may be thrown 

 upon this inquiry, by an examination of our climate, but it can be 

 resolved only by experience. 



The eastern and western shores of the Atlantic Ocean differ 

 essentially in the phenomena of climate. In Europe, the distri- 

 bution of heat through the seasons, is more uniform, and the me- 

 dium of the year more elevated. This equability is highly favor- 

 able to the perfection of vegetation ; hence that of America is melio- 

 rated in the corresponding one in Europe, while many productions 

 of that country cannot exist under the same parallels in America. 

 We are obliged, also, to migrate in the train of the seasons in 

 quest of an agreeable temperature, which the most favored Eu- 

 ropeans enjoy without changing their native signs. We experience, 

 in the same latitude, the sum.mer of Rome, the winter of Copen- 

 hagen, and the mean temperature of the coast of Britain. Nor is 

 this difference attributable to the state of cultivation, nor to any 

 accidental cause with which we are acquainted. In the eternal 

 forests which shroud our north-western coast, we find again the 

 dehcious climate of Europe, while Tartary and China repeat the 

 phenomena of our own. For the enjoyment of life, and for the 

 richness of agriculture, we should have been more advantageously 

 situated on the opposite side of the continent. 



The olive requires a climate whose mean temperature is equal 

 to 57° 17', and that of the coldest month to 41° 5'. In the Uni- 



