OLIVES IN TURKEY. 723 



sprinkled, and so on until the cask or box is filled, the upper layer of 

 salt being deeper than the others except the lower one. The staves of 

 the cask are left loosely bound to allow the bitter water from the olives 

 to drain off. When they are drained the hoops are tightened. 



To preserve green olives for the table, the fruit, after having been 

 washed, is packed in casks in its natural state. The casks have a small 

 hole bored in the bottom to allow the water to run off slowly. They 

 are filled with olives to about 3 inches of the top, and the cask is then 

 filled to the brim with fresh water once in twenty-four hours, until the 

 bitter taste of the fruit has all but passed off. The hole in the bottom 

 is then plugged, an aromatized pickle is poured on the fruit, and after 

 the pickle has taken effect a little oil is added to soften the olives and 

 reduce any bitterness that may remain in excess of what is required to 

 give them piquancy or an agreeable savoriness. 



Extraction of olive oil. — In the interior the method practiced to extract 

 oil from olives is probably the same as was employed in the earliest 

 tunes. The fruit is collected in a large bin near the mill where the 

 crushing is done. The mill is simply a large, circular, shallow tank 

 with an upright beam in the center, which runs through a large stone, 

 and serves as the pivot around which the stone revolves. A horse har- 

 nessed to a horizontal pole attached to the stone sets it slowly and la- 

 boriously in motion. An improved apparatus consists of two stones 

 attached to the horizontal pole and are dragged around with it. These 

 machines resemble the Mexican arrastra for crushing quartz. The one 

 last mentioned is the most effective of the two, as the stones describe a 

 larger circle, but it requires greater power. The olives are crushed, but 

 the oil is not expressed. When a sufiScient quantity of the fruit has 

 been thrown into the tank, the machine is set in motion, and a man 

 precedes the horse with a pole armed with iron to push the olives under 

 the stones. After a few rounds a couple of gallons of waiter at boiling 

 heat are poured in to assist the action of the stones, and more is added 

 as required, until the mass acquires the consistency of a thick paste. 

 The mass is now put into a large jar and conveyed to the press, where 

 it is kneaded with more hot water into a thinner paste, and as often as 

 it is emptied into a shallow dish it is emptied into a square cloth of the 

 same coarse material of which the cloaks of the country people are 

 made, which will bear the greatest power of the press without bursting. 

 A man forms the paste into a square flat mass, folds the cloth neatly 

 over it, and ties it with a string attached to each corner, and places it 

 in the press to the number of sixteen or seventeen cloths. The press is 

 turned down by means of a hand-lever, and when more power is required 

 a rope is carried from the lever to an upright rotary beam at some dis- 

 tance, which two men turn round with bars rapidly. 



The oil and water expressed run into a trough before the press, which 

 though rudely hewn from a log of wood is constructed on principles 

 sjiowing a knowledge of the relative specific gravity of oil and water. 



