550 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



May, 1914 



cribe, it is really simple in prac- 

 tice-; once the base-lines are pro- 

 perly set there should be no 

 trouble and no dcla\-. Quite in- 

 experienced men will be found to 

 {)ro]>erlv set loo trees per day per 

 man, dijriring all the holes and do- 

 iwr all the work, except the fixing 

 of the base-lines, which is done, 

 perhaps, weeks before. The lines 

 of" trees will be found so perfect 

 that even if the trouble had been 

 much greater, the result would 

 ha\"e fullv justified it. Men plant- 

 ing should always work in pairs ; 

 both will dig the hole together, 

 throwing the surface soil on one 

 side and the subsoil on the other; 

 then a cone of surface soil having 

 been formed in the bottom of the 

 hole, one man takes the tree and 

 I)lants it while his mate siipplies 

 him with soil sprinkled freelv from 

 the shovel imtil the roots are well 

 covered. The planter then stamps 

 the soil well round the tree, keep- 

 ing it upright, and just touching 

 the button of the planting wire, 

 while the hole is completely filled 

 bv his mate. The two then go to 

 the next tree. 



When setting the last few trees 

 in the comers of the orchard it 

 will be found that the planting 

 wire will have over-shot the end 

 of one base-line, and that the posi- 

 tions of the remaining trees can- 

 not be fixed as before. However, 

 the trees which are set will line 

 up so beautifully that the lines 

 and positions of the few trees still 

 to be planted are clearly shown ; 

 thev can be easily measured, or 

 even sighted in, with considerable 

 accuracv. — Agricultural Gazette ol 

 N.S.W. 



# 



Minister — "So vou've turned over 

 a new leaf, Sandy ? I was indeed 

 glad to see you at our prayer 

 meeting last iiight." Sandy (vil- 

 lage reprobate) — " Is that whaur 

 I wis ? T didna ken whaur I had 

 been efter I left McGlaston's pub." 



COOPER'S 



STOUT. 



Full-bodied and Nourishing:, i? 

 taking the place of Imported Stout 

 Reeommended by Doctors. 



Write »o 



Thos. COOPER & SONS 

 Upper KensinstoA. 



Olives. 



The olive is one of those trees 

 that ranks in antiquity of cultiva- 

 tion with the fig and the grape 

 vine. The time of man's first 

 making use of the fruit and oil is 

 lost in the dim vistas of the past. 

 But we have unimpeachable evi- 

 dence that it at least extended 

 back 4000 years. 



The olive, as well as having been 

 cultivated for ages, is also a very 

 long-lived tree. Individual trees 

 are known to be in existence that 

 were already ancient at the time 

 of the birth of Christ, and there 

 are groves some centuries old still 

 bearing fruit. 



Tile olive belongs to the genus 

 Olea, of which there are sub-'divi- 

 sions and a great m.any varieties. 

 Two forms of olive trees have al- 

 ways been distinguished — the 

 " wild " — Olea europoea, Sylvestris 

 (Linn.) or U: europoea oleaster of 

 de Candolle — ^and the " cultivated " 

 or domestic oli\'e, known as 0. 

 europoea sativa. There are nu- 

 merous varieties of both the wild 

 and the cultivated tree. 



The fruit of the oMve tree is a 

 drupe and is too well known to 

 need description. It varies very 

 muich in shape ; some varities are 

 round, some oblong, some pyri- 

 form, and some again, such as 

 " lucques," are convex on one side 

 and concave on the other. In fact, 

 the variations in shape are alknost 

 infinite. 



Like other trees, the olive has a 

 certain range of distribution, out- 

 side of which it does not thrive, 

 or at any rate may not be profit- 

 ably cultivate-d. Its natural habi- 

 tat appears to be confined to an 

 area at no great distance from 

 the sea-board, 100 to 150 miles at 

 most. 



The greater part of the world's 

 olives are grown round the shores 

 of the Mediterranean. Sea. This 

 area is demarcated in Europe by 

 a line running from the west coast 

 of Portugal through Spain, into 

 the south of France, including 

 Italy, running along the east 

 shores of the Adriatic, and taking 

 in Turkey and Asia Minor. On the 

 south of the Mediterranean it runs 

 from the west coast of Northern 

 .Xfrica ; starting at Morocco it fol- 

 lows a fairly con.sistent line, never 

 getting very far from the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, through Al- 

 geria, Tunis, Tripoli^ part of 

 IvgyjJt, and on for a short distance 

 into Arabia. 



This may be called the old 

 world's odive areas. Although there 

 are large tracts, both in North and 



South America well suited for the 

 growth of the olive, the onfy ex- 

 ploitation of any great extent has 

 been in the State of California. 



— Climate. — 



The range of temperature at 

 which the olive can be grown 

 varies from a minimum that does 

 not often sink to 20 degrees F. to 

 a maximum that does not often 

 rise to over 140 degrees F. ; .and 

 the mean temperature of the cold- 

 est month should not fall much 

 below 45 degrees F. to get good 

 results. 



This is a slightly more equable 

 temperature than is required for 

 the \-ine, as that plant will thrive 

 in a more extended range of tem- 

 perature than the olive. Some 

 varieties of oli^•es will stand more 

 cold than others, and extra heat 

 does not harm them as much as 

 extremes of cold. 



They do best at altitudes rang- 

 ing from 150 to 3,000 feet. At 

 lower altitudes, especially near the 

 sea-board, where misty rains and 

 fogs prevail and the weather is 

 somewhat muggy, it is 'diflicult to 

 obtain good quality fruit, as these 

 conditions tend to favour attacks 

 of the fungoid diseases and insect 

 pests to which the olive is subject. 



— Son. - 



It is a somewhat mistaken, 

 though general idea, that the oli\'e 

 can be profitable grown in poor 

 soils where other fruit trees will 

 not thrive. True, the olive re- 

 quires less water than most fruit 

 trees and may be grown over areas 

 where the physical condition of the 

 soil would make it impossible suc- 

 cessfullv to produce any other 

 fruit, such as on hill-sides where 

 the soil is very rocky. Their 

 strong and penetrating root sys- 

 tem finds its way to great depth 

 Idown among the boulders, but 

 there must be sufficient soil, hav- 

 ing a fair amount of natural fer- 

 tility, or it must be helped by con- 

 sistent mantiring, and the drain- 

 age must be good, as the olive 

 will not stand " wet feet " any 

 more than will the orange. An 

 ideal soil would be a deep, well- 

 drained, fairly rich, sandy loam' 

 containing a good percentage of 

 lime, iK)ta.sh, and phosphoric oxide. 

 Planting olives on heavy, ill-drain- 

 ed clav soil is not recommended. 



f To be Continued). 

 ^ 



Ciabe : What is a bore ? 

 Steve : A man who doesn't talk 

 to us about ourselves. 



