228 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE OLIVE* 



trees of the Cape species are observed to shrivel in dry seasons, and 

 remain in a quiescent state like some of the succulent tribes, until 

 refreshed by copious showers of rain. This circumstance might some- 

 times injure a foreign scion on these stocks, but such remains to be 

 proved. 



Choice cuttings of the olive, selected by the agent of the American 

 Patent Office in France, Were distributed some few years ago in the 

 Southern States bordering on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. This 

 plant has been cultivated in parts of Florida and California for 

 many years ; and, doubtless, there are many other tracts of country 

 uniting the conditions necessary ior the growth and perfection of its 

 roots. It may be stated that, while the Floridas were held by the 

 English in 1769, one Dr. Turnbull, a famous adventurer of that nation, 

 brought over from Smyrna, a colony of 1,500 Greeks and Minorcans, 

 and founded the settlement of New Smyrna, on Mosquito river. One 

 of the principal treasures which they brought from their native land, 

 was the olive. Bertram, who visited this colony in 1775, describes that 

 place as a flourishing town. Its prosperity, however, was of momentary 

 duration. Driven to despair by hardship, oppression, and disease, and 

 precluded from escape by land, where they were intercepted by the 

 savages of the wilderness, a part of these unhappy exiles died, while 

 others conceived the hardy enterprise of embarking for Havana in an 

 open boat, and in three years their number was reduced to five hundred. 

 The rest removed to St. Augustine, when the Spaniards resumed pos- 

 session of the country, and in 1783 a few decaying huts and several 

 large olive trees were the only remains to be seen of their wearied 

 industry. Numerous attempts, at different times, have been made 

 to propagate the olive from seeds, in various parts of the South, which 

 have proved unsuccessful. This want of success may be attributed 

 in part, to the tendency of the olive to sport into inferior varieties when 

 propagated from seeds, but after the experiment has been fairly tested 

 by cuttings of choice and well-proved varieties, it is hoped that this 

 " first among trees " will, sooner or later, become celebrated in the 

 regions of the South. 



A dry, calcareous, schistous, sandy, or rocky situation is the most 

 congenial to the growth of the olive. Where soils of this description 

 exist, with a loose and permeable subsoil, and a sloping surface, sheltered 

 from high winds, and a distance not too great from the sea, every natu- 

 ral advantage that can be wished for is obtained. The olive tree, how- 

 ever, will accommodate itself to soils and situations far less favourable. 

 Frequent complaints have been made by persons who have planted 

 olive trees in rich alluvial soils ; that although their trees grow most 

 luxuriantly, they scarcely ever produce fruit. The cause of this is 

 evidently to be attributed to the continued and too vigorous growth of 

 the trees, induced by the fertility of the soil. Now, as long as the 

 trees continue in this state, an abundant crop need not be expected ; 



