8 THE OLIVE 



To temper too warm a climate water seems to be resorted to. In 

 the Island of Candia in the Mediterranean on the thirty-fonrth 

 ])arallel the olives frnit regnhirly when watered, if they receive no 

 water it is qnite donbtfnl if the iiowers set or not. In Athens, Greece, 

 if thev are not irrigated their vield is verv uncertain. In Africa — 

 both in Morocco and Algiei's — in order to secure a crop it becomes 

 absolutelv necessarv to i^ive them water. In Valencia and Murcia, 

 Spain, it is the usual practice to water the olive, and indeed Avith a 

 loose soil and dry climate the irrigated trees respond with the surest 

 crop. But the soil, the climate and the exposure nuist be the guide 

 and indicate the necessitv. Owins; to the extreme drvness of the 

 California summer, it is ])ossible it may become needful in certain 

 localities to irrigate the orchard in order to insure a crop. I'o deal 

 with sections where there are apt to be cold snaps, tlie only remedy 

 is to chose those varieties more nearly resembling the wild type 

 which are hardier and better able to resist low temperature. The 

 smaller the tree and the closer to the ground it grows naturally, the 

 more likelv it is to be damaged bv a frost. On the Quito farm the 

 late cold weather''' did absolutely no harm although there were trees 

 on the i)lace of not more than three vears of a^v, and the mercurv 

 touched sixteen degrees al)ove zero. Even a higher temperature 

 than this has been fatal to olive trees, but that has l)een the result of 

 a sudden thawino; after a cold niirlit. Anvthinii; lower than four- 

 teen degrees of cold is. too chilling for the olive to endure; such 

 weather not only will kill the leaves and branches, but even the 

 wood itself will succumb. Tlu^ olive is not so hardy as the gra})e- 

 vine, the latter requiring only ten thousand eight hundred degrees 

 Fahrenheit to ripen its fruit, whereas the olive needs twelve thous- 

 and seven hundred degrees, although some varieties will ri})en with 

 ten thousand eight hundred degrees, from blossoming time to ma- 

 turitv, amono; which is the Snanish Manzanillo. To ascertain 

 whether anv particular locality in California is suitable for olive 



=^=Jaiiuarv, 1888. 



