THE OLIVE 15 



the Italian and Californian trees of a o-iven ao-e. A ten year old 



tree in California is much larger in every way than its Italian 

 counterpart. Hence, as was to be expected, its production is also 



greater. 



Our experience with the olive is as yet largely experimental. 

 But we cannot hope to make a high grade of oil unless we first 

 plant in favorable situations olives of superior qualifications as oil 

 producers. It will be the endeavor of the writer to indicate in the 

 following chapter which these varieties are, together with their 

 characteristics. 



The ao-e of the olive tree is known to be verv oi-eat. It mav be 

 said that well cared for trees will live three hundred vears. From 

 the first to the twelfth is the i^eriod of its infancv, from the thir- 

 teenth to the thirtieth its youth, from the thirty-first to the fiftieth 

 a period of growth^ and from the fifty-first to the three hundredth 

 the possible period of its life. 



Its vitality is really wonderful, and it seems as though it would 

 actually live forever were it not for the attacks of its numerous and 

 persistent enemies, who bore holes in its bark, eat out its heart, kill 

 its branches and feed on its leaves and fruit; but so great is its hold 

 on life that after all this has occurred, if the dead and dying tree 

 b^ cut down close to the ground, its vigorous root will give birth to 

 still another tree. It varies greatly in size. In Spain, Xijar, Al- 

 meria, one was seen that four feet from the ground measured nine 

 feet nine inches in circumference, and there are well authenticated 

 reports of trees attaining even a larger growth, but of course it is 

 superfluous to say that such a size is abnormal. 



What return may we expect from an olive j^lantation? This is 

 a question that is often asked and one of vital interest. 



In Spain olives will average, taking the country over, thirty-two 

 trees to the acre, and in estimating for oil it is customary to reckon 

 every six trees as good for four gallons of oil. Here we may safely 

 calculate on our trees, averaging one year with another, a gallon of 



