THE OLIVE IN ITALY. 659 



sequently, I deem it proper to remind them that notwithstanding all 

 the said insects, contrarieties, etc., in this island of Sicily, in an area 

 of 104,585 hectares of olive cultivated land, it yields an annual produc- 

 tion of 730,238 hectoliters of oil, at the rate of 7 hectoliters per hectare, 

 a good paying industry, besides many quintals of pickled and dried 

 olives for home consu mption and for foreign markets. 



Therefore I exhort the California agriculturists to go to work and dedi- 

 cate themselves earnestly to the culture of that most precious plant, the 

 olive tree, by repeating to them the celebrated Columella's motto, Olea 

 prima omnium arborum est. 



Vincent Lamantia, 

 Consul. 

 United States Consulate, 



Catania, January 22, 1890. 



ITALY. 



REPOIiT HY OONHUL-GENERAL KIOBMOND, OF ROMM. 

 [Republished from consular reports No. 41^.] 



Only one species of olive is cultivated in Italy, Olea Europea L. 



Varieties. — The widest spread varieties are the following : In Liguria, 

 the Laggiasca and the pignole. 



In Puglia, the pasole, the ogliarola, the leccese, and the siracusana. 



In Tuscany, the morinelle, the morajole, the correggiole, the razze, the 

 grosse, and the infrantoie. 



In Sicily, the ogliaja, the biancoUlla, the calmignana, the caltabellotese, 

 the cerasola, the calabrese, the patornese, and the giarraffa. 



Maturity. — After the tenth year the olive commences to bear some 

 fruit, and reaches its full maturity of fruitfulness at the age of forty 

 years. 



Green olives. — For green olives the fruit is used of the Cucca or Pesaro 

 in Tuscany, of the Or/ana in Eomagna, of the Morellara and the Oiar- 

 raffa in Sicily, and of the wMte olive in Ascoli. Of all these varieties 

 the fruit is large and less saturated with oil than any others. 



Dried olives. — For dried olives the fruit of the common trees is best 

 adapted. 



Yield. — In Oalci a hectare of olive trees yields in abundant years 6.50 

 hectoliters, or an average of 3.25 hectoliters. The expense of the first 

 planting of a hectare of olive trees amounts to 3,293 lire ; annual ex- 

 penses 250 lire until the tenth year. In the eleventh year the trees 

 begin to bear and reach the climax of their fruitfulness, as has already 

 been stated, at the age of forty years. In the forty- first year the ex- 

 penses of the hectare of olive trees have been 9,689 lire, and the average 

 yield of oil per annum 3.25 hectoliters. The olives yield in weight from 



