15 



I have gathered fruit these eight years. 



Fruit appears in September, October, and November, according 

 to the season we may have. 



I have had -fruit ripen from February to June. 



The trees have been well cultivated. 



I have made no oil. 



I have pickled a good many. 



I have given away nearly the whole produce for the same purpose. 



w. c. 



In South Australia, the production of Olive oil has 

 become a permanent industry; a fact going far to 

 corroborate the opinion of Simmonds, who, writing in 

 1854, says, " Wherever it has been tried on the sea-coast 

 " of Australia, the success has been most complete. Un- 

 " fortunately no one has attempted to cultivate the plant 

 ■ 6 on a large scale : but in a few years Australia ought to 

 " supply herself with Olive oil." The Olive possesses one 

 great qualification over almost every other known tree ; 

 that is, its permanency — once planted under suitable 

 circumstances, and it is planted practically for ever. It 

 attains an almost incredible age, and has been extensively 

 cultivated for an unknown length of time. Many 

 illustrations of these facts, and much that is interest- 

 ing in the history and mythology of the tree could be 

 afforded ; but as I am writing a handbook, I must con- 

 fine myself as much as possible to the purely practical. 



" If you want to leave a lasting inheritance to your 

 " children's children, plant an Olive," is a common say- 

 ing in Italy ; and an Italian authority describes an Olive 

 plantation as "a mine on the surface of the earth." In 

 Olive countries, the tree forms almost the entire support 

 of the population — the present generation living with 

 little trouble upon the fruits of the industry and intelli- 

 gence of their ancestors. Por the same reason that I 

 assigned for omitting other interesting matter, I pur- 

 posely avoid a vast amount of Statistical and other infor- 

 mation about oil countries, from which, in the course 

 of my researches, I myself derived much instruction 

 To the experimental grower of the Olive, this information 

 is not necessary ; while to those who care for it, it is 

 available without much trouble. To shew how com- 



