CHAPTER. 2X LX, 
THE OLIVE. 
The olive is another of the old mission fruits which has 
recently risen to a high place in the public mind. Though the 
tree and its products have been constantly under discussion 
since the American occupation, and though experimentation 
has been constant, it was not until 1885 that the tide of popular 
favor turned strongly toward the olive. For twelve years 
thereafter planting proceeded with enthusiasm amounting 
almost to infatuation, until the acreage now in olives has 
reached such a figure that the most enthusiastic question the 
wisdom of further planting. This is all the more serious 
because the future of the products of the olive is by no means 
clear. The competition of olive oil with cheaper salad oils 
works greatly to the disadvantage of the higher-priced article, 
apart from the fact that the cheap oils are sold in the guise of 
the olive, and can only be stopped by general pure-food legis- 
lation, which is now so greatly desired. The difficulty of pro- 
ducing pickled ripe olives with good keeping qualities is also 
vastly greater than anticipated. In addition to these troubles 
the sterility of the trees in some situations, through frost or 
other agencies, is discouraging many growers. It is probable 
that for the next few years, the uprooting of trees will exceed 
the planting and that the clive acreage will decrease until pres- 
ent difficulties are clearly shown to be surmountable. 
The olive tree has survived a temperature of 14° Fahren- 
heit in California, but the fruit is injured by a slight fall below 
the freezing point. This may render unprofitable the late varie- 
ties which carry their fruit-ripening into the winter months. 
The olive tree will thrive throughout the larger part of Cali- 
fornia, and it has been shown that it will grow in a soil too dry 
even for the grape-vine, and too rocky for any fruit tree, but the 
growth of the tree and the bearing of fruit will be proportional 
to the amounts of plant food and moisture. On foot-hill slopes 
the trees bear fruit earlier than in the rich valleys, although in 
the latter the trees attain larger growth. Trees in the interior 
bear sooner than on the coast, and ripen their fruit earlier in 
the season. 
( 333.) 
