THE OLIVE 11 



Thou shalt have olive trees thrcmghout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself 

 with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Deuteronomy xxviir, 40. 



And over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the low plains was Baal-hanan 

 the Oederite, and over the cellars of oil was Joash. i CAkonicles xxvir, 28. 



The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit'; with the noise of 

 great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it and the branches of it are broken. 



Jeremiah xi, 1G. 



And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a pennv 

 and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 



Kevelation VI, (). 



Here wliere plagues were sent forth broadcast tliey were first laid 

 under an injunction not to harm the oil and the wine. Does it not 

 then seem that the land of the olive and the wine is an especiallv 

 favored one? These Bil)lical references are interestino- for their 

 antiquity and the view they give us of the management of the olive 

 at that remote ])eriod. The manner of harvesting, of oil making 

 by treading the berries, of planting on fertile phiins where svca- 

 mores grow, of seeking the wild olives on the mountains where the 

 birds had scattered the seeds, of the danger of the olive froih fire, 

 all this is repeated to-day in the European home uf the olive. 

 The oil olive, being essentially a product of civilization, no longer 

 flourishes in Palestine; without man's f)sterino: care it ^irjn reverts 

 to its wild state and ceases to fruit, and finally disa])pears altogether. 



The ancients regarded the olive with reverence and awe. The 

 ease with which it sprang into renewed life, the vitality it ])ossessed, 

 and the hoary age it attained, all led them to endow it with a divine 

 origin. 



The Greeks dedicated it to Minerva, and w^itli evero-reen olive 

 leaves bound the brows of l)rave captains and citizens most marked 

 for virtue and wisdom. 



The Romans held the olive in a nuich o^reater esteem than their 

 shnple appreciation of the oil, and mingled the leaves in the triumphal 

 crowns of the defenders of the countrv. 



Professor Caruso savs : 



" The olive, because of the moderate care wdiich it requires and 

 the copiousness and value of its product, may be considered as a 



