OKRA DISEASES— OLIVE 



1455 



from one-fourth to three-fourths of an 

 inch. The color of the protecting coat 

 varies from white to cream. 



Life History 



The young hatcli beneath the scale and 

 soon after leaving settle to feed first upon 

 the leaves and then upon the stems and 

 young branches. The wax shell forms 

 with the growth of the females. There 

 are from three to four broods a year, 

 covering a period from April to No- 

 vember. 



Distribution 



In greenhouses, and taken in quaran- 

 tine from Japan, Mexico, India, Austra- 

 lia, Ceylon, Hawaiian islands and South 

 America. 



Food Plants 



HiMscus, Cainellia, Gardenia, Myrica 

 cerifera, tea, mango and orange. 



Control 



Spraying should be done before the 

 waxy covering is formed. Resin wash 

 or kerosene emulsion is recommended. 



White Peach Scale. See Peach Pests. 



Olive 



The olive is an evergreen with leathery 

 leaves, small whitish flowers and a 

 bluish black oily fruit containing a bony 

 two-celled stone. The common cultivated 

 olive (Olea sativa), a variety of the true 

 wild olive, is now generally believed to 

 be a native of Western Asia and has 

 been cultivated from very early times 

 for the oil yielded by its fruit. The tree 

 grows slowly, attaining a height of 40 

 feet, and has great tenacity of life. 



Pig. 1. An Olive Grove in Palestine Over 

 Two Thousand Years Old. 



— Courtesy Natomas Neivs. 



The species from which our modern 

 cultivated varieties have come is called 

 Olea europaea, from the genus Olea, in- 

 cluding about thirty species. It is very 

 widely distributed over the countries 

 about the Mediterranean sea, South 

 Africa and New Zealand. The wild olive 

 is rather shrubby and thorny, but in 

 the cultivated forms the tree grows to 

 be larger, more compact and loses its 

 spinous or thorny character, while the 

 shoots become more or less angular. 



Soils Best Adapted 



In all countries where the olive has 

 been grown, it has been demonstrated 

 that limestone or calcareous soils are 

 the best. Also that the salt sea breezes 

 are favorable to its health and vigor. The 

 environment of the sea, both in the 

 nature of the soil and climate, seems 

 well adapted to the growing of olives. 



How Propagated 



The olive roots in favorable soil almost 

 as easily as the willow, therefore is most 

 easily propagated by cuttings or layers. 

 If the tree is cut down numerous suckers 

 spring up around the stump and these 

 suckers may be cut into lengths of sev- 

 eral feet each and planted rather deeply 

 in manured soil; or short pieces are 

 sometimes laid in shallow trenches and 

 when covered with a few inches of soil 

 they rapidly throw up suckers or shoots. 

 In some places grafting is a common 

 practice, and in others plants are raised 

 from seed. 



Cultiration 



In the Eastern countries the olive is 

 allowed to grow wild in many sections, 

 in which case it bears a crop every two 

 or three years. In California it is 

 planted and cultivated much the same as 

 other orchard fruits and pays a big re- 

 turn on the labor expended in pruning, 

 irrigating and cultivating. There are 

 certain dwarf varieties with very green 

 and very superior fruit which bear in 

 about three years, whereas the old varie- 

 ties would not bear until at least twice 

 that age. 



Pickling the Olive 



The unripe fruit of the olive is used 

 in modern, as in ancient times, as an 



