614 PEUIT CULTURE IN FOEEIGN COUNTRIES. 



PioMing— For pickling, olives must be picked while yet unripe and 

 before they get black. For oil, whenever olives drop from the tree. 

 The fruit that remains on the tree is picked early in December. 



Oil.— For the extraction of oil, olives must be spread ten or twelve 

 days after being gathered, then pressed. 

 Maturity. — At the age of from seven to eight years. 

 Yield. — 1 he yield is proportional to the growth of the trees. 

 Planting and propagating. — The trees are planted about 5 yards apart, 

 and propagated by buddiug or grafting. 



Eehard Bissingbr, 



Consul. 

 United States Consulate, 



Beirut, February 12, 1890. 



TRIPOLI. 



REPORT BY ACTING CONSULAR AGENT YANNl. 

 [Republished from Consular Reports, No. 44.] 



Varieties. — All the olives of this district are of one kind, known as 

 the Olea vulgaris. 



Orchards. — Olive trees are planted in two ways. The first is trans- 

 planting, the ground is prepared by digging large trenches 3 or more 

 feet deep in which old domesticated or wild olive trees are planted. The 

 land is plowed four or five times a year. The wild olive is grafted in 

 the fourth year after transplanting. This method delays the crop, but 

 is more successful than that employed in Lattakia, where the wild olive 

 is grafted at the time of its transplanting, in order to hasten the crop. 

 The loss in death of the trees is very heavy in consequence. The second 

 method, which is good and less expensive, is to plant the shoots or 

 suckers grown on the trunks of old trees. In most of the new planta- 

 tions the mulberry is planted at the same time and place with the olive 

 shoot. The mulberry grows rapidly, supports the olive plant, and gives 

 good crops of leaves for the culture of silk, till the olive tree, which is 

 of slow growth, begins to bear fruit, by which time the mulberry dies. 

 These young olive trees require constant care to hasten their growth. 

 Neglect in cultivating does not seem to greatly affect the product of old 

 trees. To keep olive trees in good condition they require either fertil- 

 izers or a change of earth about the roots of the trees. The latter 

 method is usually employed. 



I am unable to give any information concerning the queen olives of 

 commerce, since this sort is not found in the districts around Tripoli. 



Maturity. — Transplanted trees come into full bearing after their tenth 

 year, while plantations of shoots do not attain their maturity before 

 their twentieth year. As to the age these trees can live, it is not 

 known, but it is estimated that the groves around Tripoli are of great 

 antiquity. 



